
H 




Class 




Book _ * . - r- ■ - 



2 2>#l 




1 lie Knialitiiuj of Prince Henry ■ o flfo n mo nth 
t\ Richard 2* MJs. Earl. 1310. 



AN 



ESSAY 



ON THE 



CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES, 



BY 

ALEXANDER LUDERS, Esq. 



Contram 

PRINTED FOR T. CADELL AND W. DAVIES, 
IN THE STRAND. 

1813. 



S„ . Jf<*j>r*£lt 



G. Sidney, Printer, 
NorthumDerland-street, Strand 



ON THE 

CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH, 

WHEN 

PRINCE OF WALES. 



INTRODUCTION. 



I shall endeavour to regain the truth 
of history for the character of this great 
Prince in his youth, because it has been 
hidden in obscurity, or represented in 
fable. Not having been able to find 
sufficient authority for the wanton and 
dissolute character assigned to him in 
the plays of Shakespear, and that older 
play which he seems to have followed, 
I suspect that they are almost as fabu- 
lous as Ovid's Metamorphoses. What is 
to be found in real and authentick history 



2 INTRODUCTION. 

is so inconsistent with those scenes, that 
I believe, if one of that generation could 
revive, and behold the person repre- 
sented on our stage for young Henry of 
Monmouth, he would be as much puz- 
zled to know him there, as to trace 
Daphne in the laurel. Yet the earliest 
chroniclers of those times agree in their 
story of the young man's excesses j 
although they relate no particular facts, 
as some of their followers do. 

Theatrical and poetical perversions of 
history are, indeed, very common, and 
being generally innocent are forgiven or 
unnoticed. Either the audience and 
readers are not knowing enough to dis- 
cover them, or their effect is not lasting; 
and they are seldom carried so far as to 
give a wrong turn to our judgment of 
well-known events or characters. But 
in the present instance, the fame and 
genius of the poet, and the popularity 
of bis scenes, have perverted our na- 
tional history in an important article : 



INTRODUCTION. 3 

So deeply, that I fear it will be thought 
a vain attempt to shew his error and 
remove its impressions, I want to dis- 
pell a mist that his delicate hand has 
made us wish to keep before our eyes ; 
and must raise a contention between two 
great favourites of the nation, the Prince 
and Shakespear. It shall be my study 
to carry it on without offending their 
admirers ; to distinguish the prince of 
history from the prince of poetry, and 
the natural character from the work of 
art. And so to clean away the tarnish 
from one of the brightest ornaments of 
the English throne, that our hero's glory 
may become more splendid, without 
lessening the poet's fame. 

His character of FalstafF has been 
received, without any doubt, for a work 
of invention : but that of the dissolute 
young prince as his companion, has 
generally passed for true; not only with 
those who hear or read the plays, but 
with those also whose duty it is to iu- 
b 2 



4 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

quire into the truth of what they relate, 
our historians. It is for them my cor- 
rection is intended. But I would leave 
the theatre in full possession of its de- 
light, and be ready to join its votaries 
there in exclaiming Errare malim. 



SECTION I. 



Of the Prince's earliest and Military 
History. 

Being unable to find authorities for the 
dramatick character, I shall present the 
reader with such as may make him ac- 
quainted with the real one. The old 
chroniclers in English, as Fabian, Hall, 
Grafton, Holinshed, Stow, and Speed, 
take their tale one from another, of the 
young man's sudden change of cha- 
racter, upon his accession to the throne ; 
when, in the words of Shakespear, 



WHEN PRINCE OP WALES. 5 

" Consideration, like an Angel, came 
And whipt th' offending Adam out of him." 

Every one of them seems to believe 
implicitly in this original sin of the 
hero; and therefore takes no pains to 
inquire into the fact, or to account for 
it, or to refer to his authority. And the 
moderns all have been equally careless. 
Goodwin who wrote a long history of 
Henry the fifth's reign, confined himself 
strictly to that period, and was afraid to 
go beyond it ; except to shew r his expec- 
tation of producing no good by the in- 
quiry. 

I shall lead the reader up to the source 
from whence they must have derived 
their opinions; beginning with the 
writer who lived nearest to the time in 
question. Premising that the only book 
I know, in which any one has ventured 
to declare his doubt of this uniform 
consent, or to intimate a contrary opi- 
nion, is the Parliamentary History of 



6 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

England. The author of that part of 
it which treats of this period, in two 
places expresses a suspicion of the truth 
of the prevailing notion. * He considers 
the censures of the old chroniclers and 
their copiers, to be very inconsistent 
with the character which the Prince had 
obtained from the parliaments of his 
father's reign, for his valour and pru- 
dence : And that if he had been guilty 
of the levities he is accused of, he would 
not have been made President of the 
Council. 

The first of the chroniclers, Thomas 
Elmham prior of Lenton, may be 
called a contemporary of Henry the 
fourth rather than of his son ; but he 
outlived both, and wrote the life of 
Henry the fifth at great length, in a 
verbose and flourishing style of Latin, 
and with abundance of praise. It was 
published by Hearne. His sixth chapter 

* Vol.ii. Pp. 112, 126. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 7 

has the following title, " *Of the Princes 
natural temper and disposition, and beha- 
viour in his youth." Here, after relating 
an extraordinary instance of his activity 
and swiftness of foot, (it is the outrun- 
ning a deer,) he describes him thus, 
" — much given to lasciviousness, and 
very fond of musical instruments. Pass- 
ing the bounds of modesty, and burning 
with the fire of youth, he was eager in 
the pursuit of Venus as of Mars. When 
not engaged in military exercises, he also 
indulged in other excesses which unre- 
strained youth is apt to fall into. If 
these things here introduced among 
others, should be thought worthy of 
perusal and of a place in history, it 
depends on the judgment of discreet 
readers to give them place or not. If 
not, such cloudy passages may well be 
buried in obscurity and silence. But the 
author's reason for alluding to them, is 

* Page 11. 



8 CHARACTER OP HENRY THE FIFTH 

in order to afford matter of rejoicing to 
those who shall read what is to come, by 
presenting the sudden change of night 
into day, of a cloud into clear sky, of 
an eclipse into perfect splendour, of dark- 
ness into light. Lo, the time is at hand, 
when, upon the vanishing of a cloud, the 
solar rays will dart forth/' — &c. Such 
is the author's style. His next chapter 
contains a tale of Henry the fourth's cal- 
ling his son to his bed-side, when at the 
point of death, in order to kiss and bless 
him as Isaac did Jacob, and of the 
Prince's retiring to penitent reflections 
like the prodigal son ; and then " the 
left hand becomes the right by a happy 
miracle," which concludes the chapter. 

He writes without noticing dates or 
once mentioning the Prince's age. Im- 
putes the victory at Shrewsbury to his 
valour ; which, if true, is the most ex- 
traordinary event of his life : For he 
was at that time not quite sixteen years 
old. Relates his appointment to the 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES, 9 

chief place in council, as having been 
made in consequence of the aid he sent 
to the Duke of Burgundy. That he 
studied to comply in all things with his 
father; and, though a strong party at 
court had endeavoured to slander him to 
the king, and detract from his merit, 
yet that the king died blessing him. 
The passage is too curious to be passed 
lightly over. Young Henry is made to 
retire to confession, after receiving the be- 
nediction, where " all alone, he revolves 
and brings back in bitterness of spirit, 
with sharp reflections and a contrite 
heart, the past years of his youth ;" con- 
cluding with a fine speech of intended 
reformation, (zvhichnone but theMuse could 
hear,) and " shedding a river of tears that 
flowed through the whole day." At 
night, and while the stream still flowed, 
he finds out a holy man to give him ab- 
solution, from whence he returns " de- 
cently adorned with a robe of Virtues."* 
* Edit. Hearne, p. 42. 



JO CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

Then comes on (after many wise say- 
ings and doings of his) the feast of the 
coronation, in which the young man 
will not partake; for he resolutely be- 
takes himself to fasting for three days 
and nights, that he may have time for 
reflecting coolly upon his exalted station. 
All which the author would have his 
readers believe upon the faith of very 
credible testimony, which had induced 
him to write it. Then, in the next chap- 
ter, (Sth) the nobility who before w 7 ere 
afraid of his accession, appear to have 
undergone the same sort of conversion 
as he, and by the same sudden impulse ; 
for they immediately make him an offer 
to swear allegiance, by a precipitate and 
unusual mark of regard and unprece- 
dented ceremony, and are delighted to 
think of him for their king. .Not a word 
here of his old companions, or of their 
dismissal. 

It is not easy to get through such a 
book with seriousness, or to select what 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 11 

should pass for truth, and what for fable* 
Yet it must be supposed that our author 
wrote according to the current opinions 
of his time; and his rank and character 
enabled him to converse with persons 
capable of giving him proper informa- 
tion. An expression in his preface shews, 
that the did not write of the Prince's 
extravagancies without reflection ; for he 
introduces a parenthesis to inform us 
" that they did not even for a moment let 
down the magnanimity of his character." 
He writes as if they had happened be- 
fore he came to manhood ; inconsistent 
as that is with the opinion he inculcates 
of their continuing to the death-bed 
scene, and its wonderful operation upon 
them.* 

The next writer is an Italian, who has 
generally been called by us Titus Livius. # 

* I should from his own expressions have inferred 
this to have been his Italian christian name. The 
title prefixed to his book is Titus Livius a Frulovisiis, 
Ferrariensis ; and some have made it to be Forojuiien- 



12 CHARACTER OP HENRY THE FIFTH 

He too wrote the life of Henry the fifth, 
which he addressed to Henry the sixth ; 
having composed it by command of the 
Duke of Gloucester, under whose pro- 
tection he lived. This has been likewise 
published by Hearne. It is evidently 
formed out of Elmham's, or else both 
writers used some other work in common 
thathasnotbeenpreserved. Hecompresses 
his original's long descriptions and phrases 
into a better style, omitting some pas- 
sages and adding others ; and on the 
whole has made a better book and more 
credible history. It contains many mis- 
takes, however, and internal evidence of 
his being a foreigner, as he has described 
himself. 

After a prefatory address to Henry the 
sixth, then in his youth, with which the 
book begins, the narrative proceeds as 
follows, as I translate it : 

" The Welsh entertained hopes, de- 

sis, bat without reason. Dr. Henry, I know not 
why, thought it an assumed name. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. IS 

rived as they said from one of their old 
prophecies, that a prince would be born 
in their country who should govern the 
whole realm of England; which has 
been fulfilled by the birth of Henry the 
fifth in that land. During the life of 
his father, then Duke of Hereford, he 
was brought up in the king's palace, 
and honourably and suitably maintained 
by king Richard, whose favour he en- 
joyed together with that of all the cour- 
tiers. The king frequently spoke of 
him in publick in his court to this effect ; 
namely, That he had always heard it 
reported from his ancestors, that there 
would be one of the name of Henry born 
among his kindred, who w r ould be cele- 
brated all over the world for his praise- 
worthy and glorious deeds ; which per- 
son he verily believed this prince to be. 
For this cause, upon the breaking out of 
the rebellion of the Irish, he accompa- 
nied the King in that expedition, that 



14 CHARACTER OP HENRY THE FIFTH 

he might acquire the knowledge and ex- 
ercise of arms. 

When the Duke his father first re- 
turned from banishment, he was raised 
to the throne after the death of Richard, 
as the law ordained. Afterwards, when 
he marched into Scotland to war, 
he gave the command of the largest 
division of his army to this Henry his 
son, whose qualities then began to ap- 
pear. After this there happened a great 
insurrection in England itself towards 
the north; and he accompanied his fa* 
ther there to suppress the rebellion. A 
large body of the rebels assembled in 
arms at Shrewsbury ; against whom the 
father and son fought a long, hard, and 
bloody battle, in which the valour of 
this Henry the Prince was highly distin- 
guished. Here, while exerting himself 
strenuously and with too little caution 
in the fight, he was wounded in the 
face with an arrow, and it was thought 
that his life was in danger. But when 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES, 15 

they would have led him off the field, 
he said " With what spirit will the rest 
fight, if they see me their prince, and 
son of the king, retiring in fear? Lead 
me wounded as I am into the foremost 
rank, that I may encourage our fellow 
soldiers not by words but deeds, as be- 
comes a prince." And forthwith he made 
a bolder attack than before upon the 
enemy.* 

The battle lasted long, and the loss was 
great on both sides ; but when Henry 
Percy was slain, who w r as at the head 
of the conspiracy, it ended with a com- 
pleat victory on the King's side. Many 
Welshmen, indeed the greater part of 
the men of that country, entered into 
the rebellion ; and while it lasted, the 
King laid waste their lands with fire and 
sw r ord. The King's son Prince Henry, 
being appointed to command in this 
war, destroyed the enemy and rebels, 

* In this passage either the book or the copy is 
imperfect, and could not be exactly translated. 



16 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

partly in battles, and partly by military 
execution. Others were driven into strong 
holds ; one of which, a castle of very 
great strength at Aberystwith, contained 
a large number of them. Thither the 
aforesaid Prince marched with a great 
store of engines and instruments for a 
siege, and after great labour and expence, 
and suffering much from the severity of 
the season and poverty of the country, 
obtained possession of the castle. And 
together with that the rest of Wales was 
restored to the dominion of his father ; 
except one Owen the chief of the Welsh, 
who from fear and consciousness of his 
offences, after lurking about in caves 
and desert places by himself, at length 
ended his days there. The son of this 
Owen afterwards became a menial ser- 
vant to King Henry. And thus much 
may suffice for the wars of Wales, 
whereof very certain information has 
not been obtained. 

In the mean time John Duke of Bur- 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 17 

gundy had suffered so much by a war 
with the Duke of Orleans, that he was 
obliged to seek aid in England from this 
Prince Henry ; who, with his father's 
permission, sent some of his troops into 
France to assist the Duke of Burgundy, 
through whom he obtained the victory* 
For which cause the Prince was che- 
rished and gratefully received by his 
father and the King's council ; although 
there were some who detracted from his 
fame on this occasion. 

This Prince was in stature beyond the 
middle size, of a handsome face, long 
neck, slender person, and neat limbs* 
yet of wonderful strength and swiftness 
in running ; insomuch that without dogs 
or bow, with two attendants only, he 
could catch that swiftest of beasts the 
deer. He took delight in musick, but 
in feats of the chace or military exer- 
cises was moderate, as well as in other 
amusements of that kind during the 
King his father's time. 
c 



18 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

And now the end of his father's life 
approached, and he received from him, 
after service to God in due form before 
the altar, and with prayers, the blessing 
of a father. While he was dying, 
Prince Henry as one about to succeed 
to the throne, calling for a priest of good 
name, made confession of his past offen- 
ces, and thoroughly amended his life 
and conversation; so that after his fa- 
ther's death there was no passage of 
wantonness ever escaped him. 

To this great Prince the nobles upon 
his becoming King made an offer of 
swearing fealty, in their publick as- 
sembly of the realm which they call 
parliament, after the third day and be- 
fore he was crowned and had taken the 
oath to govern well, of which there had 
been no example before to any Prince 
of England. After giving them due 
thanks, he exhorted them to regard the 
honour and welfare of the state j and 
if any man were offended in him, he 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 19 

would remit all things to all, beseech- 
ing God " if he should be pleased to 
grant his grace to promote the honour 
and safety of the kingdom, that then 
lie would grant him to be crowned ; but 
if not, that he might rather be buried." 

After this the author proceeds to re- 
late the coronation, and goes on with 
the events of the reign. 

These two writers professed to write 
the King's life, and therefore would 
deserve more consideration than others, 
even if thev had not lived in the times 
they treat of. But this latter circum- 
stance is perhaps the weightiest as to 
the merit of their works. T. Livius, 
the humble servant of the Duke of 
Gloucester his hero's brother, may per- 
haps be pardoned for passing over what 
he thought blamable in his youthful 
years; yet it is plain that he had heard 
of such passages, and believed them 
true. But from Elmham we ought to 
C 2 



20 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH. 

have had particulars, if they were in- 
deed such as he leads us to suppose. 

A little attention to dates, and to the 
events of the Prince's youth, as they 
are to be found in the records of the 
time, has led me to think lightly of the 
imputation cast upon him, and that it is 
as much overcharged, as the account of 
his reformation is manifestly fabulous. 
Before I quit these authors, it is proper 
to notice that Archbishop Parker* has 
passed a censure upon T e Livius for 
making but a lame history, and for not 
acknowledging Elmham for his original, 
in which censure Hearnef does not agree ; 
and that Holinshed supposed Elmham 
to have copied Livius, (into a certain 
poetical kind of writing,) in which he is 
certainly mistaken. 

There are three other writers of the 
English history who were likewise con- 
temporary with these reigns, namely, 

* In Preface to Walsingham. 
f Preface to Tit. Liv. and Preface to Elm, p. 12. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 21 

Otterburn, Hardyng, and Walsingham. 
The work of the former is a meagre 
account of events, and ends abruptly 
with the year 1421. Yet not deserving 
the contemptuous phrase set upon him 
by Bishop Nicolson, who does not ap- 
pear to have seen the book.* In the 
transactions of Henry the fourth's reign, 
it contains very little of the Prince of 
Wales, either publick or private ; from 
whence one might suspect the author 
not to have been a contemporary, if the 
proofs of it collected by Hearne and 
inserted in the edition of his Chronicle, 
had not been strong, f The Welsh war 
itself is only noticed by him in the 
short passages following, viz. 

The King is more than once related 
to have marched thither, and not to have 
met with success. Of the battle of 
Shrewsbury^ it is only said, that the 
King committed part of the army to the 

* Edit. Hearne Pref. 92. f lb. 29. 89, 90, Ql. 
t lb. p. 242. 



22 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

Prince of Wales that day ; but not a 
word of his bravery or conduct, or youth. 
Owen Glendower's son is said to have 
been taken prisoner in the battle of 
Huske,* 15th March, 1405, between the 
Welsh and the English of the Princes 
household, where there were about 1500 
killed and made prisoners ; as if Henry 
himself had had nothing to do there. 
Yet it is probably the same battle as 
makes the subject of the Prince's letter 
hereafter quoted, of Wth March. The 
taking of Aberystwithf in 1407, is re- 
lated in the words used by Walsingham, 
which I shall state in another page, pro- 
bably copied from this author. 

The story of the Prince's visit to his 
father in the year before his death is 
well told and short, and I shall have 
occasion to recur to it in the last section 
of this Essay. He relates the King's 
death in a natural and ordinary way, 

* lb. p. 251. t lb. 261. 



WHEN PRINCE OP WALES. 23 

and without any calling for his son, or 
other circumstances of fancy. But after 
that comes the coronation of Henry the 
fifth, with its attendant the terrible and 
ominous snow-storm, and the new man 
regenerated — thus — " Qui ver-o mox ut 
initiatus estregni infulis, repente mutatus 
est in virum alterum; honestati modestias 
et gravitati studens, nullum virtutis 
genus pertransiens quod non cuperet in 
se transferri. Cujus mores et gestus omni 
conditioni servire videbantur ad appre- 
hendendas virtutes ; sicque felices repu- 
tabantur quibus imitari dabatur vestigia 
regis* * 

This passage is copied and enlarged by 
Walsingham, upon which I too shall 
have to enlarge in treating of the lat» 
ter. 

Hardy ng's Chronicle of England was 
the work of one who was a soldier as 
well as poet, and who served under our 

* lb. page 273. 



24 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

Henry in the war of France. In the 
argument of his 203d chapter, he men- 
tions his own appointment to be constable 
of Warkvvorth Castle upon the Earl of 
Northumberland's attainder; and in that 
of chap. 212, he relates his going to the 
siege of Harflete with the new King. It 
is composed in English rhyme, of which 
I shall have occasion to quote only two 
stanzas ; for there are no more that affect 
my inquiry. 

One, which I shall consider in another 
place, relates to the young Prince's con- 
duct to the Duke of Burgundy, and his 
being supplanted in his father's favour 
by his next brother. The other is the 
following, taken from his 2 11th chapter; 
the argument of which contains this 
passage " And in the hour that he was 
crowned and anointed, he was changed 
from all vices unto virtuous life." — This 
is the stanza, in modern spelling — 

f* The hour he was crowned and anoint 
He changed was of all his old condition. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 25 

Full virtuous he was from point to point $ 
Grounded all new in good opinion, 
Forpassingly without comparison. 
Then set upon all right and conscience, 
A new man made by all good regimence." 

Walsingham wrote in the reigns of 
Henry the fifth and sixth. His works 
having deservedly gained reputation, I 
shall be more particular in selecting 
from them, than from Otterburn or 
Hardyng. He brings the history of 
England down to his own time ; and there 
is no difference between his Ypodigma 
Neustrias and theHistoria Brevis, in what 
relates to my subject. In what follows 
I have extracted from the latter all those 
passages in which he names Henry the 
fifth; whose character, as Prince of 
Wales, he describes as if he derived his 
information from Elmham. 

In his history of Henry the fourth's 
reign he mentions the young Prince only 
four times, which are on the following 



26 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

occasions. First when created Prince of 
Wales,* and only 12 years old But 
he says nothing of his age or character. 
Secondly in the account of the battle 
of Shrewsbury in 1403, where Percy 
was defeated and killed. Here f the 
Prince of Wales is related to have made 
his first essay in arms, and to have been 
wounded in the face by an arrow. This 
passage deserves to be particularly noted, 
because the event is related as briefly as 
in this page, and shews that the his- 
torian had no particular inclination to 
praise him. For the occasion would 
have allowed him to do so with truth, 
and agreeably to every reader's feelings. 
The prince was then only in his 16th 
year. Though Sand ford's account J would 
make him almost a year younger, yet 
the date given to his birth by Williams 
in the history of Monmouthshire, which 

* Edit. 1574, p. 401. t P. 411. 
t Geneal Hist. 277. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 2*J 

makes it of 9th Aug. 1387,* was the 
result of much inquiry, and seems cor- 
rect. His father would hardly have 
placed him in battle, and in such a battle 
in his 15th year. The black Prince him- 
self so celebrated for his youthful prowess 
was in his 17th at the field of Cressy 5 | 
when he first appeared in arms. 

The third instance is of the year 
1407, in the 20th of the Prince's age, 
when he had a command in Wales, 
as the King's lieutenant there against 
Glendower. All that is related is in these 
words/}; " In this summer the Lord 
Henry Prince of Wales besieged and 
took the castle of Aberystwith ; but soon 
afterwards Owen Glendower contrived 
by fraud to retake it, and strengthened 
the place with a new garrison." 

The fourth and longest passage is of 

* The battle was on 21st July, 1403. 

t So Sandford ; eighteenth Walsingham. 

} Wals.419. 



28 CHARACTER OP HENRY THE FIFTH 

the year 1410, upon the execution of 
a poor Lollard for Heresy, who was burnt 
in Smithfield.* The Prince is related to 
have been present, and to have taken 
pains with the man before he was finally 
shut upf for the fire, in order to con- 
vince him of his error and procure his 
recantation, but in vain. Afterwards 
during the progress of the flames, he was 
moved by the sufferer's cries to order the 
fire to be taken avvav, and to address 
the half-dead patient very earnestly to 
abjure his errors, and ask pardon ; which 
the Prince promised to obtain, with a 
provision for life if he would recant. This 
being obstinately rejected, the Prince 
ordered him to be shut up again in the 
fire, and he was consumed. 

This was in the last year but one of 

* P. 421. 
f I do not remember to have seen, except in this 
example, a description of the method of executing 
this cruel punishment, as it was here practised. The 
sufferer was shut up in a cask. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES, 29 

Henry the fourth. We may fairly draw 
from it two inferences of considerable 
effect upon the Prince's character. One, 
that at this period he was sincere and 
zealous upon those points of religion 
which were then brought into publick dis- 
cussion ; the other, that he was not with- 
out authority or influence at court. 

All that Walsingham relates which 
can be construed into an unfavourable 
opinion of his personal character, is in 
the following passage, of the beginning 
of his reign. " On which day (april 
9th, his coronation,) was a heavy fall of 
snow, so severe as to astonish every 
body; some men's minds connecting the 
storm with the new king's reign, as if 
it stamped a mark of coldness and se- 
verity upon his life and government. 
But others judged more mildly of the 
king, and interpreted this unseasonable 
weather to be a happy omen ; as if he 
would cause the snow and frost of vices 
to fall away in his reign, and the serene 



30 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

fruit of virtues to spring up. That it might 
be truly said by his subjects, " Lo, the 
winter is past, the rain is over and gone.''* 
Who indeed as soon as he was invested 
with the ensigns of royalty f was sud- 
denly changed into a new man ; behaving 
with propriety, modesty, and gravity, 
and shewing a desire to practise every 
kind of virtue. Whose manners and 
conduct were exemplary to all ranks 
both of Clergy and Laity." 

Taking the obvious bearing of this 
description, we might from hence impute 
to the King a character hitherto quite 
contrary to propriety, modesty, gravity, 
and every virtue. Upon what evidence 
did these historians write this ? Elmham 
had not said so, and had palliated what 
he wrote to his disadvantage. And they 
themselves had related nothing before 
to justify the charge. Yet the- circum- 
stances must have been notorious if true* 

* From Solomon's song, chap. ii. 11. 
f This is the passage taken from Otterburn. See p, 23. 



WHEN PR1NCK OF WALES. 31 

and ought to have been noticed by a 
faithful relator of events. It is plain 
that Walsingham in this place, in copy- 
ing from Otterburn, has only studied to 
amplify the words without inquiring 
into the facts ; and his censure is too 
extensive and severe to be intitled to 
respect. We have seen nothing yet to 
rely upon, but the general words of 
Elmham, and must learn from other 
sources what this change of behaviour 
was, since these authors do not furnish 
the necessary information, or shew what 
it was before the change. Walsingham 
makes no reference to this part of the 
King's life, when in summing up his 
character at the end of his reign, he 
bestows the highest praises upon him. 

These are the onty historians I know, 
who may be called contemporaries of 
these reigns; and from them all subse- 
quent writers may be supposed to have 
gained their information. I shall shew 
that they were ignorant of some of the 



32 CHARACTER OP HENRY THE FIFTH 

most material transactions of the life of 
Henry before his accession to the throne, 
and therefore were incompetent judges 
of his character: For I see no reason to 
blame them for wilful concealment. 
They are well enough disposed to applaud 
him in what they relate of his reign, 
and to excuse what they refer to of his 
early life. 

Elmham's book seems to have been 
the foundation on which Walsingham 
rested, as well as T. Livius ; and these 
gave out the word, which was impli- 
citly taken by all that came after. There- 
fore Elmham must be diligently exa- 
mined ; for Otterburn and Hardyng are 
not distinguished enough to merit a 
separate consideration. 

In the first transaction related by 
him of the Prince of Wales, his in- 
attention to dates and times would 
lead the reader to imagine, as proba- 
bly the writer himself thought, that 
Henry was advancing to manhood at the 
time of King Richard's expedition to 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 33 

Ireland. His words are* " Virentibus 
adhuc annis teneris jloridce juventutis :" 
and "Cum etiamRexidemRicardus contra 
rebel les Yberniae in ipsas partes manu 
pugnatorum fortissimatransfretaret, prae- 
fatum Henricum secum in sua comitiva, 
ipsum prout decuit tractando deduxit; 
ei plerunque signa dilectionis internee 
prsetendens : Jam primo didicit nondum 
pubertate insignita juventus, inunda- 
tiones fluminum et marinos ten tare 
tumultus." Which T. Livius improves 
thus, — " in expeditione cum Rege profec- 
tus est ut rem militarem et disceret et 
primum exerceret." As if he had ac- 
companied the King of his own accord, 
to be instructed in the art of w r ar. 

But it appears that he was then-f only 
in the twelfth year of his age : And the 
King's motive for taking him to Ireland, 
was, that he might thus retain a pledge for 
his father's good behaviour. For the Duke 

* Cap. ii, f In May, 1399. 



34 CHARACTER OP HENRY THE FIFTH 

was then meditating in exile how to 
make good his return to England. Our 
Prince was a boy of fine parts and for* 
ward for his years, and a favourite with 
the King; who took the first oppor- 
tunity that occurred of doing him honour 
even then, by knighting him under the 
royal standard upon first taking the field 
in Ireland : On which occasion he made 
several other knights, for the greater 
splendour of the ceremony. * The Prince 
ever retained a grateful sense of Richard's 
kindness to him ; which serves to ex- 
plain a transaction very particularly 
related by the contemporary and earliest 
writers of his reign. One of his first acts 
after being crowned, was to pay due 
funeral honours to the remains of that 

* This was in June following. I cite from the 
curious French Manuscript No. 1319, of the Har- 
leian collection -, a part of which is translated, and 
published in Harris's Hibernica, as the work of Sir G. 
Carew Lord Totnes. That extract makes part of a 
collection in Cott. MSS. Titus B. 11. p. 17 5. which 
probably had belonged to the Carew family. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 35 

King, who had been buried without 
them ; and to shew as much respect to 
his memory, as his peculiar situation and 
the duty to his own father would permit. 
This remarkable event of Henry's life, 
the being knighted so young and in the 
field, is not noticed by the contemporary 
chroniclers, and was perhaps unknown 
to them. Yet it was a high distinction 
to one not of royal birth ; for which I 
must refer to M. de la Curne's Memoirs 
of ancient Chivalry.* 

The next mark of inattention to his 
subject which I charge upon the author, 
is his manner of writing of the battle 
of Shrewsbury, although he ascribes the 
successs of the day to our young hero. 
This, in my opinion, proves that he did 
not know his age. He could not have 
omitted to mention, as an addition to 
his praise, that he was then not sixteen 
years old, if he had known the fact : 

* See particularly the last note to the first part. 
D 2 



36 CHARACTER OP HENRY THE FIFTH 

And not to know it, is blamable igno- 
rance in a writer of his life. He writes too 
that the Prince had a command of part 
of the army sent against Scotland in the 
precedingyear, when he was still younger; 
yet without noticing his age. The King 
commanded that army in person, and 
did nothing worthy of note ; but 
in the parliament which met in October 
following, the Speaker's address* com- 
pliments the King for what he did in 
Scotland. If the Prince of Wales had 
any command given him then, it must 
have been only nominal. But the same 
address thanks the Prince together with 
the King, for his prowess then lately dis- 
played in his campaigns against the 
Welsh, where, according to Dr. Henry, f 
he commanded a division of the army. 

We learn from instruments in Rymer's 
Foedera, that in the year of the battle of 
Shrewsbury, young as he then was, the 

* 3. Pari. Ro. 486. 
f 9. Henry 8vo. p. 15, cites Otterburn. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES, 37 

King placed such confidence in him, as to 
make him his Lieutenant in Wales, for 
the prosecution of the war there against 
Glendower.* It may be presumed that he 
sent wise and able assistants to accom- 
pany him. But the events shew that 
he wanted them not. In executing 
this commission, he appears to have been 
active and diligent, and to have given 
proof of great abilities attended with 
successs, of which there are records re- 
maining.f The reader of this part of 
his life in Elmham, will have only a 
faint and very imperfect idea of his me- 
rit, and will be led by the style to suppose 
that he was in the full vigour of man- 
hood at this time. Eager as he describes 

* 8. Rym. Feed. 305. 
f Int. al. 8. Rym. 4ig. There is an article of the 
proceedings in parliament of October, 1404, which 
shews his attention to Ways and Means. He applies 
to parliament for a speedy assignment of money for 
his troops which had been promised, and of which 
he had received only one half. 3. Pari, Ro. p. 54p, 



38 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

him in the pursuit of Venus as of Mars, the 
letter I am about to produce will prove, 
that he had likewise the endowments 
utriusque Minervce, in this period of 
his youth. In the second year of his 
command in the Welsh war, he had the 
good fortune to gain a great victory 
against superior numbers; and the mo- 
dest and interesting letter which he wrote 
to the King his father with the news, 
is characteristick of him who afterwards 
fought at Agincourt. It is extraordinary 
that it should fall to me at this day to 
be the publisher of such a letter. I say 
publisher, because being unnoticed by 
our historians, the publication of it in 
Rymer's Foedera, in the original French* 
(some readers may stare at this) has kept 
it for the gratification of antiquarians 
only. I give the letter here translated, 
without farther preamble. 

* 8. Rym. F. 390, from MSS. Cott. Cleop. F. 3. 
fo, 59. In 4. D. 1404-5. 6th Hen. 4, 



WHEN PRINCE OP WALES. 39 

" Most dread Sovereign Lord and 
Father, 

" In the most humble manner that I 
may in my heart devise, I recommend 
myself to your royal majesty, humbly 
praying your gracious blessing. Most 
dread Sovereign Lord and Father, I sin- 
cerely beseech God graciously to shew 
his providence towards you in all places ; 
praise be to him in all his works ! For 
on Wednesday the 11th of this instant 
month of March, your rebels of the 
parts of Glamorgan, Morgannock, Usk, 
Netherwent, and Overwent, drew to- 
gether to the number of 8000 men by 
their own account; and went in the 
morning of the same day, and burnt 
part of your town of Grosmont within 
your Lordship of Monmouth and Jeu- 
noia. 
* only my well beloved cousin the Lord 

* There is something defective here. The French 
words of the manuscript are, as in the print, tantost 
hors, which I can make nothing of. 



40 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

Talbot, and the little troop of my house- 
hold; and there joined them your brave and 
faithful knights William Newport and 
John Greindre,* who made but a very 
small power altogether. But true it is 
that the victory is not in the multitude of 
people, (and thus was it well seen there) 
but in the might of the Lord. 

" And there by the aid of the blessed 
Trinity your men wan the field, and 
overcame all the said rebels ; of whom 
they slew in the field, by fair reckoning 
upon our return from the pursuit, some 
say eight hundred, and some 1000, being- 
questioned upon pain of death. Never- 
theless, be it one or the other in this ac- 
count, I will not dispute. 

€i And to give you full information of 
the whole affair, I send you a person 
worthy of credit therein, one of my 
faithful servants the bearer hereof, who 

* His services in this war were thought worthy to 
be mentioned with others, in the Commons address 
to the King. 3. Pari. Ro. p. 577. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 41 

was in the battle and very satisfactorily 
performed his duty, as he has ever done. 

11 Now such amends hath God ordained 
you for the burning of four houses in your 
town aforesaid. And no prisoners were 
taken except one who was a great chief- 
tain among them, whom I would have 
sent to you, but that he is not yet able 
to bear the journey. 

" And with respect to the course I pro 
pose to hold hereupon, please your high- 
ness to give entire credence to the bearer 
hereof, in what he w 7 ill himself inform 
your highness on my part. And pray God 
ever keep you in joy and honour, and 
grant that I may shortly have to comfort 
you with more good news. 

" Written at Hereford, the said Wed- 
nesday at night, 

" Your most humble and obedient Son, 

" HENRY." 

At the date of this letter the Prince 
was not eighteen years old. Yet it is 



42 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

evident that the conduct of the war, 
and of the government of the country 
then in rebellion, was left entirely to 
him. His expressions shew that he felt 
the importance of his situation, and his 
proceedings are such as a man of ex- 
perience would have directed. We see 
no vanity or exultation, though the oc- 
casion would have rendered it excusable 
in a high spirited youth of his years 
and quality. 

The day named in the above letter for 
the engagement, (l lth March) is the 
same as Carte mentions for a victory 
gained by the Prince over Griffith, eldest 
son of Ozven Glendower. If the chief- 
tain described by the Prince had been 
that person, his quality is not likely to 
have been omitted in the account of 
him ; and we may therefore suppose the 
author quoted by Carte* to have been 

* Ellis's Account of Owen Glendower. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 43 

mistaken, either as to the person or the 
time. 

The same book from which Rymer 
copied the above letter,* contains another, 
written by the Prince in June of the 
preceding year, when he was at Worces- 
ter in his progress toward Wales to 
take the command o£ the army ; in 
which, with a master's hand he gives 
orders for the disposition of troops and 
other circumstances, in the full exercise 
of authority ; and that before he was 
seventeen. This being an official letter 
may possibly not have proceeded imme- 
diately from himself, and on that ac- 
count I do not think it worth while to 
insert it. 

Upon the meeting of parliament in 
March following, the Commons addressed 
the King to let the Prince remain con- 
stantly in Wales, while the war conti- 
nued there :f and at the same time 
prayed his majesty " to direct his honour- 

* Fo. 47, f 3. Pari. Ro. 569, 3 April, 1406. 



44 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

able letter under the privy seal, to thank 
the Prince for his good and continual 
labour and diligence which he had con- 
tinually sustained in his honourable per- 
son, for the subduing of the country, 
and the chastisement and punishment 
of the rebels, and the resistance of their 
evil and malicious purposes." 

It is plain that T. Livius speaks with 
truth in observing that men were but 
imperfectly informed of the war in 
Wales. # For we have before us two con- 
temporary writers of the life of him 
who had the conduct of it, the hero 
of their story ; a young prince of ele- 
vated genius and great abilities, which 
were first called into action and distin- 
guished in this war ; a war that conti- 
nued for many years under his govern- 
ment, who yet barely bestow a few lines 
upon the subject. May we not suspect 
that writers ignorant of such material 
parts of his life, might know as little 
of the other transactions, from whence 

* See p. 16, before. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 45 

they have drawn one part of his charac- 
ter? And we may the more readily par- 
don the general chroniclers of those 
times for the same kind of inattention. 

The Welsh rebellion began in the first 
year of the king's reign, and was not 
suppressed till the tenth. Many instru- 
ments of this period in Rymer's Foedera 
shew that from the year 1403, when 
the Prince became the King's Lieute- 
nant of Wales, until the rebel chief 
Glendower was subdued and fled, the 
King committed to his son his authority 
and confidence for the discharge of his 
trust. And the records of parliament 
shew that it was with the wishes and 
approbation of that assembly. It was 
a high trust and arduous employment. 
For the King was beset with difficulties 
as soon as he w T as seated on the throne, 
and his whole reign was a course of 
constant toil and exertion. Owen Glen- 
dower assumed the title of Prince of 
Wales, and at one time held in his hands 



46 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

a power equal to that of its ancient 
Princes. In this character he made a 
treaty offensive and defensive* with 
France, the chief object of which was 
to invade England through Wales* Ac- 
cordingly, at different times there were 
bodies of -' "French troops sent to his as- 
sistance. This therefore was an important 
part of the King's administration ; who 
designed and was proceeding more than 
once to conduct the war there in person^ 
but was prevented by other troubles. 

The Prince of Wales seems to have 
continued for some years in that 
country, intent upon his commission, 
according to the desire of the House 
of Commons above-mentioned ; during 
which time his rebel rival kept him in 
active employment, and afforded him 

* 8. Rym, 356, 365, 7, 406, 7> 412. He dates 
his acts and instruments very royally, In the fourth, 
& 'c. year of his Principality, 

f Instruments of the years 1405 and 1406 in 
8. Rym. 407, 412, 419, SRe w that he then made pre* 
parations for it 



WHEN QUINCE OF WALES. 4? 

the means of accomplishing himself in 
that fatal art, which afterwards proved 
so destructive to his subjects and his 
enemies. But of all this we should know 
very little without looking for the proofs 
in Rymer's Foedera and the records of 
parliament. 

In this manner the Welsh rebellion 
was in a great measure subdued ; and 
Glendower himself, after the defeat 
and death of his ally Northumberland, 
was no longer formidable. This happened 
in the spring of the year 1408.* The 
Prince of Wales's name does not occur 
afterwards in the publick instruments re- 
lating to this country ; and probably he 
left his command there in consequence 
of its more settled state. It had now 
been about five years subject to his go- 
vernment. 

Another cause may have helped to 
call him away, and perhaps to assist his 

* Walsingham in that year. 



48 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

father in the negotiations with France. 
The misfortunes and factions of that 
country tempted the king to retaliate 
upon it for the aid furnished from thence 
to his enemies here ; and he now pre- 
pared to take advantage of their divi- 
sions, as they had done against him. 
About this time Prince Henry was made 
Warden of the Cinque Ports, and soon 
after Captain of Calais, upon the death 
of the Earl of Somerset.* This was 
a greater appointment and more important 
trust than that of Lieutenant of Wales; 
and the then uncertain state of peace or 
war with France doubled its importance. 
I have not been able to find evidence 
of his being at any time upon ill terms 
with his father on account of a vicious 
and dissipated course of life, a circum- 
stance related in all the modern histo- 
ries. All through the Welsh transactions 
the contrary appears; and the above 

* S. Rym. 616, 629, in March, 1410. 



WHEN PRINCE OP WALES* 49 

appointments prove that at this period 
the King continued to employ his son 
in his most arduous business. The Cap- 
tainship of Calais might be called the 
best thing in the King's gift, if emo- 
lument and power were in view. It was 
this station that enabled the Earl of War- 
wick in the next generation, to turn 
the fate of the kingdom and to make 
and unmake Kings. 

Among the transactions of the year 
1411 there is an appointment of the 
Earl of Arundel as embassador to treat 
with the Duke of Burgundy, for a mar- 
riage of one of his daughters with the 
Prince of Wales, to which the Prince 
is a party. It is not probable that either 
side was sincere in this proposal, from 
whichsoever it came. The real business 
that arose from this intercourse seems 
to have been a supply of troops under 
the Earl's command, who went to the 
Duke's assistance, and enabled him to 



50 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

defeat his enemy the Duke of Orleans.* 
It would not have been mentioned here 
but on account of the persons who held 
the chief command in the expedition, 
who had been of the Prince's army in 
Wales; as the Earl of Arundel, Sir John 
Oldcastle, and Hugh Mortimer his 
chamberlain : from whence I infer that 
the measure had his hearty concurrence. 
But Elmham and T. Livius relate that 
application was made directly to the 
Prince of Wales by the Duke of Bur- 
gundy for this aid, (an extraordinary 
course of proceeding) and that the King 
appointed his son to be President of his 
Council, because he was much pleased 
with him for sending it. There is no 
authority now to be found for either 
story. The Prince was at the head of 
the council long before. 

Walsingham mentions the expedition 
to France, as a transaction in the usual 
course. The instrument of X^ord Arun- 

* Velly Hist, de France and Walsing. in this year. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 51 

del's commission is dated the first of 
September 1411,* by which he and 
others are empowered to treat of the 
marriage. The Prince about the same 
time went to his government of Calais, 
perhaps to superintend the expedition 
then preparing, f and select the troops for 
that service. He may have had corres- 
pondence there with the Duke of Bur- 
gundy, and that may have given rise 
to the passage in Elmham. In this year 
I find a confidential messenger was sent 
to him by the Pope, but for what pur- 
pose does not appear. It was not to be 
committed to writing. J 

In the following year the King em- 
barked in a new scheme of politicks for 
France, which led him to quit his con- 
nection with the Duke of Burgundy, 
and to support that Duke's enemies of 
the Orleans party. Eor this end a treaty 

* 8 Rym. F. 698, 9. f lb. 705. 

* lb. 726. 

E 2 



52 CHARACTER OP HENRY THE FIFTH 

was concluded* between him and the 
Orleans chiefs, in whose support the 
Duke of Clarence was sent to France 
with a considerable army. One of the 
instruments of this treaty contains an 
engagement on the part of the Prince 
of Wales and his brothers, to maintain 
its articles against the Duke of Bur- 
gundyand all his family.f In the month 
of March of the next year Henry the 
Fourth died. 

There are some other instruments in 
Rymer concerning the Prince, which 
prove the unceasing good correspondence 
between him and his father, for which 
purpose I select them, as follows: 

Vol. 8. 401. June 1405, a grant to him 
for life of the castle and lordship of 
Framlingham, late belonging to the at- 
tainted Earl Marshall. 

lb. 591. July 1409, a grant of Cran- 
burn and two other manors, &c. to hold 

* 8Rym. F.?38, f lb. 743, 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 53 

in ward during the minority of Edmund 
Earl of March. 

lb. 608. Nov. 1409, a grant of 500 
marks a year to him for maintenance of 
the said Earl and his brother. This was 
a trust of the highest confidence ; for 
the young Earl, as heir in blood to the 
deposed King, was the constant object 
of Henry's fears. 

lb. 628. March 1410, a grant of a 
house for his residence in London. 

lb. 639. June following another grant 
of 500 marks as before. 

lb. 705. October 141 1, a release of 
duties on wine for the supply of his 
household. 



SECTION II. 



Of the Princes conduct in State Affairs. 

I have reserved for a separate chapter 
the evidences of the Prince's conduct in 



54 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

state affairs, not only because the subject 
is distinct in itself, but because the proof 
is altogether drawn from a single source, 
the proceedings in the House of Lords, 
as preserved in the parliament rolls. 

The reader has perhaps seen what he 
did not expect, of our hero's regular mi- 
litary employment from his earliest youth, 
and of his diligence as well as abilities in 
that character. I am about to detail 
matters less known, which prove that he 
attended as diligently to business of 
state, and was qualifying himself for a 
statesman, by engaging in the transac- 
tions of parliament at an early period 
of life, and sooner than is commonly 
thought prudent for young men to be so 
employed. 

It is related that he was placed for 
education at Queen's College Oxford, 
under the care of his uncle Beaufort, 
who was afterwards Cardinal.* When, is 

* Rous Hist. Regum: Angl. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 55 

not told. It must have been in his 
boyish clays, and he could not have staid 
there long ; yet probably long enough 
for one of his fine parts to acquire the 
best of such learning as was then taught, 
But exercise and experience were his 
chief teachers. The character which 
Cicero in his Orator makes L. Crassus 
take to himself, may be given to our 
Prince. " Qui ante ad agendum quam 
ad cognoscendum venimus, quos ■ 
res ipsa ante confecit quam possemus ali- 
quid de rebus tantis suspicari." 

The first proceeding of his in Parlia^ 
ment which I find recorded is of Decem- 
ber 1406, and makes its appearance upon 
a great and remarkable day ; when the 
settlement of the crown was fixed in the 
King and his issue ; and signed and sealed 
by all the Lords, and by the Speaker for 
the Commons.* Next follows a petition 
by the Prince of IVales and the Lords 

* 3Parl.Ro.5S3. Dec. 22. 



56 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

spiritual and temporal against the Lollards 
and their abettors, speakers and inventors 
of news and falsehood and prophecies, 
against the Catholick faith and the pos- 
sessions of holy church and the Prelates ; 
which is immediately agreed to, for the 
security of the publick peace and holy 
church. When it is considered that the 
King had been suspected formerly by 
the clergy, of lending a favourable ear to 
those Lollards, or to their designs against 
the temporal ties of the prelates, this act 
of the Prince of Wales deserves particu- 
lar remark. The King himself may be 
thought to have suggested it to his son, 
for a proof which he and his family were 
willing to give of their attachment to 
the ecclesiastical constitution, and to re- 
lieve the clergy from their fears of 
change. 

The following article shews that the 
Prince in this year assisted in transacting 
the chief business of state and parlia* 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 57 

ment, as one of the great Council;* 
wherein certain ordinances are established 
for regulating the proceedings of this 
council. The 13th requires all the mem- 
bers to be present, except where quick 
dispatch is necessary. In which case, 
those who are absent shall be consulted. 
Except that if the Prince or other Lord 
should be upon service out of the realm, 
or in Wales, f the rest shall not be obliged 
to wait for their answer, 

The following article represents the 
Prince upon a great occasion, in an inte- 
resting address to the King in full Par- 
liament. We cannot judge as we ought 
of its importance, for want of knowing 
the particular circumstances. For it 
seems to relate to divisions at court and 
in parliament, which cannot now be 
thoroughly explained. On the 2d Dec. 

* 3 Pari. Ro. Pp. 585, 587. 

f The printed roll has the word Guerre here for 
Gales, but I find upon examination of the record that 
the mistake is in the original. 



5 a CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

1407* being the last day of Parliament, 
after great heat and debate, " the Speaker, 
in the name of the Commons, prayed the 
King to be graciously pleased to reward 
the Prince for his great labour diligence 
and troubles, many and frequent, in re- 
sisting the great rebellion of the Welsh. 
Whereof his Majesty most especially re- 
turned thanks to the Commons, for their 
hearty good will in this behalf. And 
thereupon the said Lord the Prince, most 
humbly kneeling, declared to our said 
Lord the King and to all the estates of 
parliament, in respect of the Duke of 
York, how that he had understood that 
divers obloquies and detractions had been 
put forth by certain evil disposed per- 
sons, to the slander and derogation of 
the honourable estate and name of the 
said Duke. Wherein the Lord the 
Prince made declaration for the same 
Duke, that if it had not been for his 

* 3 Par.Rol. p. 611, translated. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 59 

skill and good advice, himself the said 
Prince and those who were with him, 
would have been in very great perils and 
desolation. And he farther added in 
behalf of the said Duke, that if he had 
been one of the poorest gentlemen of 
the realm, wishing to earn a good name 
and honour by service, the said Duke did 
so in his own person labour and use his 
endeavours to give comfort and courage 
to all others who were of the said com- 
pany : And that in all his actions, he 
is a true and valiant knight. 

And the said Speaker in the name of 
the Commons farther prayed, That all 
those who were with the said Lord the 
Prince in Wales, and continued and 
staid with him until his departure thence, 
might be rewarded and promoted accord- 
ing to their good desert. And that the 
rest who fled and Went oif from the said 
Prince's company, without asking or 
obtaining leave in that behalf, might be 



60 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

punished and chastised for example to 
others in time to come." 

The circumstances abovementioned 
respecting the Duke of York may be 
relieved from a part of their obscurity, by 
recurring to former transactions in which 
he was concerned. He had lately served 
in the campaign in Wales in the Prince's 
company, who esteemed him for his 
military qualities; but had incurred the 
King's displeasure two years before, upon 
some attempts then forming in favour of 
the young Earl of March ; had been 
arrested and imprisoned on this account, 
but after some months discharged,* and 
was received again into favour.f The 
only merit of his character was in mili- 
tary service, which the Prince's address 
had been able to employ for the Duke's 
own benefit as well as the King's. For 
he had been, when Earl of Rutland, a 

* 8 Rym. F. 387, 8. 

t lb. 457. He is re-appointed Constable of the 
Tower. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES, 61 

courtier to Richard the Second and his 
favourite companion, and was suspected 
of having betrayed him. He engaged 
in the first plot to set up the Earl of 
March against Henry the Fourth, but 
saved himself by revealing it to the 
King; and for this and from regard to 
his father Edmund Duke of York, ob- 
tained a pardon. Such a man could 
never be clear of suspicions in the King's 
mind, ever sore on the subject of Morti- 
mer, when any danger was apprehended 
from that quarter. Whether this were 
the case on the present occasion or not, 
it furnished the Prince of Wales, how in 
the 21st year of his age, with an oppor- 
tunity of shewing friendship for his 
kinsman and fellow-soldier, with the 
warmth of youthful affection, though 
perhaps not agreeably to his father's 
wishes. He continued the same kind- 
ness to him after his accession to the 
throne ; and in the second year of his 
reign made a declaration in parliament in 



62 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

his favour, in order to reverse the attain- 
der passed upon him in the beginning of 
his father's reign. * Thus did he change 
enemies into friends ; and in this instance 
converted a treacherous courtier into an 
able warrior and useful servant of his 
country. For this Duke, who had once 
deserved to die upon a scaffold, was 
enabled by the Prince to enjoy his friend- 
ship, to live many years in honour, and 
lose his life nobly upon the field of Agin- 
court. 

In the next parliament, which met in 
January 1409-10, there are likewise 
particular instances on record of the 
Prince's participation in the proceedings. 
One is a petition of the Commons, which 
recites that a statute of that year (Stat, 
ii. Hen. 4. ch. 9.) a very material one in 
the administration of justice, to prevent 
malicious prosecutions and secret indict- 
ments, was made by the King's grace 

* 4 Pari. Ro. \J . 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 63 

" par la bone mediation de lour redout6 
Seigneur le Prince."* 

The others contain entries of the respite 
of two ordinances " by the Lord the 
Prince and the Council."! This article 
has given occasion to such an ill-founded 
censure of the Prince by high authority, 
and to so great a mistake in parliamen- 
tary history, as to require an explanation 
at some length, upon which I must 
therefore enter. But I shall first mention 
the remaining passages of the Parliament 
Rolls intended for this place. 

On the 2d May 1410, J his name ap~ 
pears as chief of the great council, and 
as such he addresses the house upon the 
means of discharging the necessary pub- 
lick expenses. He states on their part, 
that if there should not be found sufficient 
for the purpose, they beg to decline the 
office assigned to them, as soon as the 
Parliament shall end. 

* 3 Pari Ro. p. 627. f lb. pp. 626, 643. 
t lb. p. 632. 



64 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

On the last clay of this parliament* 
the Speaker, in the name of the Com- 
mons, prays the King to favour them 
with the names of the Lords of the Coun- 
cil, and that they may be sworn again. 
" Whereupon the Lord the Prince prayed 
the King, as well on his own behalf as 
for the rest of the counsellors, &c." that 
two new Lords may be appointed in the 
room of two who were absent in the 
north. Afterwards the Speaker repeats 
the recommendation of the Commons of 
the Prince's distinguished merits, and 
intreats the King's gracious favour to- 
wards him and the Princes his brothers ; 
which the King accepts in good part. 

In the next Parliament, on the last day 
of November, 141 l,f the Speaker having 
prayed the King to thank the Prince and 
Lords of the Council in the last Parlia- 
ment "for their great labour and dili- 
gence, which the Commons believed to 

* 3 Pari. Ro. p. 634. t lb. p. 649, 



WHEN PRINCE OP WALES, (i5 

be a faithful discharge of their promise 
then made. Thereupon the Lord Prince, 
and the other Lords aforesaid kneeling, 
our said Lord the Prince declared in 
their names, how that they had used 
their labour pains and diligence, accord- 
ing to their promise, and the best of 
their skill and knowledge, in the office 
given to them in parliament. Which 
the King duly accepted, and did most 
graciously give them thanks. And he 
added, that he well knew that if they 
had possessed better means than they 
had, according to what had been spoken 
by the Prince,* at the time of his ap- 
pointing them of his Council in the said 
parliament, they would have endeavoured 
to do more good than was done in divers 
places, for the defence honour benefit and 
profit of himself and all his realm. And 
our Lord the King said farther, that he 
was well content with their good and 

* This alludes to the proceedings of May 2, 141Q, 
in p, 63\ 



66 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

faithful diligence counsel and service, 
whilst they were of his Council as afore- 
said." 

An address is made by the Speaker on 
the last day of this parliament,* in 
favour of the Prince and his brothers, and 
of the Queen likewise ; after a petition 
made by Lords and Commons, as if to 
appease the King for some displeasure he 
had conceived against certain great men. 

The words of the original passage 
above mentioned in page 63, are written 
on the roll in the margin of the ordinance 
thus, " Respectuatur per dominum prin- 
cipem et consilium" These words are 
taken up by Sir Edward Cokef in com- 
menting upon this ordinance, who make^ 
them the ground of accusing the Prince 
of a strange presumption. Although, if 
there were any thing wrong in the pro- 
ceeding, the blame must fall upon the 
Council as well as the Prince. The Chief 

* 3 Pari. Ro. p. 658. A.D. 1411, 19th December. 
f 3 Coke Inst. 225. 



WHEN PRINCE OP WALES. 6/ 

Justice in this place takes praise to him- 
self for being the first to print for a 
statute, that had lived long in obscurity <> 
one of the two acts alluded to, which 
inflicted punishment upon certain great 
officers who should receive fee or present 
for doing their duty. His words are, 
" the cause thereof (of its not being 
printed) was for that in the margetit of 
the parliament roll of this act it is writ- 
ten, Respectuatur per dominum principem 
et concilium. A strange presumption, 
without warrant of the Kins: his father 
and of the parliament, to cause such a 
respectuatur to be made to an act of 
parliament. The like he did to another 
act in the same parliament, N°. 63, con- 
cerning attornies, the like whereof was 
never done in any former or latter 
parliaments. This was that Prince Henry 
who keeping ill company, and led by ill 

counsel, ■ — &c. &c. « ." And he 

cites his authors, for the story of the 

insulting Chief Justice Gascoigne, which 

F 2 



68 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

I shall reserve for another place : Con- 
fining myself here to what relates to the 
entries in the Parliament roil. 

Whether those in question were pre- 
sumptuous and illegal or not, and whether 
the instrument itself were a statute or 
not, is of no consequence to my present 
point. I produce them to shew that the 
Prince attended, and with effect, to the 
business of parliament in which he dis- 
charged a high and important office. If 
Sir E. Coke had seen as much of the pro- 
ceedings in parliament of those times, as 
we of this day have been furnished with 
by the printing of the rolls, he would 
probably have entertained a different opi- 
nion upon this and some other points of 
parliamentary law, from those which 
now appear in his writings. In this in- 
stance it will be easy to shew that the 
usage and law of parliament in Henry 
the Fourth's time, authorised the prac- 
tice he complains of. 

The acts and proceedings of the two 



WHEN PRINCE OP WALES. €9 

houses out of which the statutes were 
framed, were not then drawn into the 
form of statutes till the close of the 
session; and the care and superinten- 
dance of this belonged to the King's 
Great Council assisted by the Judges. I 
need only refer again to that entry of 
May 2, before quoted in p. 63, to shew 
the authority of the Council in such 
matters. It begins thus. " The Commons 
came before the King and Lords in Par- 
liament, and there prayed to be informed 
of the names of the Lords who shall be 
of his continual Council, to execute the 
good appointments and ordinances made in 
this present parliament" 

The Council, therefore (not the Prince) 
acted agreeably to the power vested in 
them, in preventing this ordinance from 
obtaining its final establishment as a 
statute, if they found cause for so doing. 
That the parliament of this time did put 
such construction upon their own pro- 
ceedings, is evident from what passed in 



70 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

the next parliament, on the subject of 
that other ordinance of this year which 
the Prince and Council had respited in 
the same manner. J will only refer to 
the passages in the printed rolls, for 
those readers whose studies may lead 
them to consider the point more mi- 
nutely ; beipg sensible that I have already 
said more than was necessary here.* The 
passage taken from the roll of the 13th 
year of Henry the Fourth, before given 
in part in p. 65, shews the high sense 
conceived of the merits of this Council, 
both by the King and the Commons, for 
the faithful discharge of their duty ; and 
leaves no room for supposing that they 
acted wrong upon this occasion. 

The effect of this act of parliament 
which Sir E. Coke printed for the first 

* See the roll of 13 Hen. IV. p. 666, n. 4Q, com- 
pared with n. 63, of p. 642, in 11 Hen. IV. and chap. 
10, of Lord Chief Justice Hale's tract on the Lord's 
Jurisdiction. Also Elsynge's Expeditionis Billarum An* 
fiquitas, pp. 60, 1, 5, 6. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. *J\ 

time, was directly brought into question 
upon the trial of the Earl of Macclesfield.* 
The managers of his impeachment relied 
upon it as a statute, and the Earl con- 
tended that it had not the authority of 
one. 

Bishop Nicolson in his Historical Li- 
brary has been unluckily misled by the 
above reflection of Sir E. Coke, to make 
the same charge against the Prince of 
Wales. But by connecting it with his 
current theatrical character, he gives a 
very idle and absurd turn to the transac- 
tion; describing the above act of the 

Council, as a marginal note one of 

the many frolicks of the Prince.^ Under 
the same impression he might have 
added, with as much justice, that his 
letter to the King was written in a like 
frolicksome mood. 

I would now ask the reader of this 

* State Trials edit. 1777. PP- 735, 759. 
t Engl, Hist. Lib. part 3, ch. 2. 



72 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

section, if he can believe that a writer 
of Henry the Fifth's life, could have 
omitted to mention those material parts 
of it which are contained in the records 
here cited, if he had known their con- 
tents, or those passages of his life ? Much 
less a contemporary author, and still less 
a writer disposed to praise him, and to 
extenuate what he had found to his dis- 
advantage ? I must follow this question 
with another. Is the historian, whom 
we must suppose so ill-informed, or igno- 
rant of a main part of his subject, inti- 
tled to much regard? 

I know not where to introduce so pro- 
perly as in this place, a part of his cha- 
racter certainly deserving notice, although 
neglected by the historians. Princes and 
potentates have been in all ages addressed 
and flattered by poets. Their praise does 
not always prove that the patron is in- 
titled to it: Yet it is in general an atten- 
dant upon distinguished merit; and in 
the present case may be brought to prove 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 73 

more than in others, because poets are 
not apt to choose out for their heroes 
persons whose conduct has given offence. 
The chief poets of that day, Occleve (or 
Hoccleve) and Lidgate, addressed some 
of their works to our prince, as a patron 
of literature and composed them by his 
desire. One of these by the former is a 
long composition upon princely govern- 
ment, translated from Egidius de Regi- 
mine Principum, addressed to him while 
Prince of Wales, which he tells him was 
the work of his great love.* 

Lidgate was patronized by him both 
before and after his accession, and w r rote 
his Siege of Troy and other poems by his 
desire.f Walsingham likewise dedicated 
his Hypodigma Neustrise to Henry the 
Fifth.J 

There is reason to believe that all the 

* MSS. Had. 4826, N c . 6. 
t See Preface to his Life of the Virgin, printed by 
Caxton, and 1 Ellis Specim. Early Engl. Poets, 281. 
% 10 Henry. Hist. Engl 8vo. p. 131. 



74 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

sons of Henry the Fourth, through his 
care, had attained to higher literary 
accomplishments than the other young 
nobility of their age. The King ex- 
tended the same care to his royal captive 
of Scotland, and thus made amends to 
him and his subjects for an act of great 
injustice in his person. Henry the Fifth 
was fond of books, as is proved by a 
curious article in Rymer, # of two peti- 
tions to the Council after his death, for 
the return of valuable books of history, 
borrowed by him of the Countess of 
Westmoreland and of the Priory of 
Christchurch Canterbury, and not re- 
turned ; though one of them had been 
directed to be delivered to its owner by 
the King's last will. Twine relates that 
he had prepared a scheme of new modi- 
fying the University of Oxford, and of 
erecting a new College there with large 
endowments.! We are indebted to the 

* 10 Vol. p . 3 17. . . t Antiq. Acad. Oxon. Apol. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 75 

Duke of Bedford, for the first great col- 
lection of books that has been known in 
England, which had formed the French 
King's Library and was purchased by 
the Duke. Both Oxford and Cambridge 
have proofs of the Duke of Gloucester's 
liberality to their institutions. 



SECTION III. 



Of the common stories of the Princes 
Excesses and Misconduct. 

I shall take separately such of the tales 
as have been current, of our Prince's 
vicious and dissipated course of life, and 
examine them as well as my materials 
will enable me. 

1. The Prince of Wales rescues a prisoner under 
trial, and insults the Chief Justice in Court. 

Out of respect to my lord Chief Justice 



76 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

Coke, I begin with that tale which we 
have lately left him prepared to introduce, 
of Henry's violence and rudeness in the 
court of King's Bench, against his prede- 
cessor Chief, whose affront he seems to 
feel in his own person. He continues 
the passage quoted in page 67 thus. 
"This was that Prince Henry, who keep- 
ing ill company and led by ill counsel, 
about this time assaulted (some say) and 
struck Gascoigne Chief Justice, sitting 
in the King s Bench. For that the Prince 
endeavouring with strong hand to rescue 
a prisoner, one of his unthrifty minions, 
indicted and arraigned at the King's 
Bench bar for felony, was prevented of 
his purpose by the persuasion and com- 
mandment of the Chief Justice. For 
which the Chief Justice committed the 
Prince to the King's Bench ; whereof 
some of his followers instantly com- 
plained to the King his father : Who 
informing himself of the true state of 
the case, gave God infinite thanks that 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 77 

he had given him such a judge as feared 
not to minister justice, and such a son 
as could suffer semblably and obey jus- 
tice. And this is that Prince who aban- 
doning his former company and counsel, 
and following the advice of grave 
wise and expert men whom he made 
choice of to be of his council, became 
a victorious and virtuous king, and pros- 
perous in all that he took in hand at home 
and abroad." 

For this anecdote he refers to Sir Tho- 
mas Elyot's Governor and Holinshed's 
Chronicle. Without our going farther 
than his quotation, it may be observed 
that the King himself is represented 
to have entertained a different opinion 
from Sir Edward Coke upon the adven- 
ture ; for he upon the instant thanks 
God for giving him such a son. And 
there is neither ill company, nor ill coun- 
sel, nor unthrifty minions charged upon 
the young man by Sir T. Elyot, w^ith 
whose whole chapter I am going to pre- 



78 CHARACtER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

sent the reader. For I cannot trace the 
story higher than this book; which is 
a collection of moral discourses upon 
education intitled The Governor, dedi- 
cated to Henry the eighth, in whose 
reign the author was distinguished as a 
scholar and courtier.* The tale is intro- 
duced there for a different purpose from 
that of Sir E. Coke, and in order to 
give praise to all the persons named in 
it, as follows, 

* B.2. Chap. 6. It was first printed in 1534, accor- 
ding to Oldys. Thisextract is also given in Reed's edition 
of Shakespear, vol. 12. p. 224, but introduced with a 
mistake from Sir J. Hawkins respecting the Chief Jus- 
tice's early history. Fuller in his Worthies v. 1 . p. 505. 
edit. 1811, Art. Gascoigne, refersto Elyot as the original 
for the anecdote $ and Oldy's in his Brit. Lib. Art. 
43, supposes it such. Fuller adds, " from whom 
our modern historians have transcribed it." It is 
to be regretted that they have not adhered to the 
Governor but have gone to the Comedian whom Fuller 
alludes to, for its enlargement. He says " Hence 
our Comedian (fancy will quickly blow up a drop in 
history into a bubble in poetry) hath founded a long 
scene on the same subject." Oldys adds in a note, 



WHEN PRINCE OP WALES. *]d 

2. " A good Judge, a good Prince, a good 
King. 

The most renoumed Prince, king Henry 
the fift, late king of Englande, duringe 
the lyfe of his father was noted to be 
fierce and of wanton courage. It hap- 
pened that one of his servants whom 
he favoured well, was for felony by him 
committed arreyned at the kings bench : 
whereof the Prince being advertised, 
and incensed by light persons about him, 
in furious rage came hastely to the barre, 
where his servaunt stood as a prisoner, 
and commaunded him to be ungived and 
sette at libertie. Whereat all men were 
abashed, reserved the chiefe Justice, 
who humbly exhorted the Prince to be 
contented that his servant might be or- 
dered, according to the auncient lawes 
of this Realme : or if he would have 

that the event was commemorated by a medal which 
he had seen, representing the Judge on the bench > 
with a person beside him, and three as auditors to 
whom he is reading. 



80 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

r 

him saved from the rigour of the lawes, 
that he should obtayne, if he might, 
of the king his father his gracious pardon, 
whereby no Law or Justice should be 
derogate, 

With which aunswere the Prince no- 
thing appeased, but rather more inflamed, 
endeavoured himselfe to take away his 
servaunt. The Judge considering the 
perilous example and inconvenience that 
might thereby ensue, with a valyant 
spirite and courage commaunded the 
Prince uppon his alleagaunce to leave the 
prisoner and depart his way ; at which 
commaundemet the Prince beinge set 
all in a furye, all chaufed, and in a terrible 
maner, came up to the place of judgement, 
men thinking that he would have slain the 
Judge, or have done to him some do- 
mage : But the Judge sitting still without 
moving, declaring the majestie of the 
Kings place of judgement, and with an 
assured and bold countenaunce, had to 
the Prince these words following : 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 81 

Sir remember your selfe. I keepe heere 
the place of the king your sovereigne 
lord and father, to whome ye owe dou- 
ble obedience : wherefore eftsoones in 
his name, I charge you to desist of 
your wilfulnesse and unlawful! enterprise, 
and from hencefoorth give good exam- 
ple to those which hereafter shall be 
your proper subjects. And now, for 
your contempte and disobedience, goe 
you to the prison of the Kinges bench, 
where unto I commit you, and remaine 
ye there prisoner untill the pleasure of the 
Kinge your father be further knowen. 
With which words being abashed, and 
also wondering at the marvailous gra- 
vitie of that worshipful Justice, the 
noble Prince laying his weapon aparte, 
doing reverence departed and went 
to the Kinges bench as he was com* 
maunded. Whereat his servaunts dis- 
dayned, came and shewed to the King 
al the fahole affayre, whereat he a whiles 
studying, after as a man all ravished with 
o 



82 CHARACTER OP HENRY THE FIFTH 

gladnesse, holding his eyes and handes 
up towards heaven, abrayded with a 
loud voyce : O mercifull God, how 
much am I bound to your infinite good- 
ness, specially for that you have given 
me a judge, who feareth not to minister 
Justice, and also a son who can suffer 
semblably and obey Justice." 

There is no date given to this tale, 
either in its original state or in its subse- 
quent changes. Yet Sir E. Coke chooses 
to fix it about this time, i. e. the time of 
the strange presumption which he cen- 
sures. With respect to his ill company 
and striking the Judge, and the rest, they 
are indeed to be found in Holinshed. 
But whether he or another were the first 
relator of that gross and mean personal 
iiisult, it ought to gain no credit with 
those who take the account from Sir T. 
Elyot. I suspect that it came from the 
stage and play books into the history 
books ; as I caft find none of them in 
which this choice morsel is preserved. 



WHEN PklNCE OF WALES. 83 

more ancient than the coarse old play 
of Henry the Fifth, which I am about 
to exhibit to the reader, for this and 
other good things of the same kind. 

This adventure afforded a droll panto* 
mimical scene for vulgar entertainment 
in that play. The actor of the clown's 
part there being a great favourite of 
the audience, and the piece a popular 
one ; as Malone has shewn, though 
Steevens had imagined the contrary.* 
It has the following title, ** The famous 
Victories of Henry the Fifth, containing 
the honourable battle of Agin- court, 
as it was acted by the Kinges Majesties 
servants." I use the collection of Six 
Old Plays on which Shakespeare founded his 
8$c. by NichoJls 1779- We are not 
told when it was first printed. The King's 
Majesty in the title page of the edition 
followed there, proves that to be of James 
the first's time. Mr. Malone s industry 

* Reed's Shakesp. V. 3. p. 363, and V. 12, p. 262, 
G 2 



84 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

has found in the books of the Stationers' 
Company, an order for printing it in 
1594;* which is earlier than the printing 
of Shakespear's Henry IV* and V* 
But it was a play acted and well known 
before 1588; for Tarlton the favourite 
actor mentioned above, is related to have 
been Clown and Chief Justice in it, and 
he died in that year.f Therefore though 
Holinshed's Chronicle was printed in 
1573, the probability is in favour of the 
priority of the play. The internal evi- 
dence of its language and manners con- 
firms it strongly, though the spelling and 
many phrases have been modernized. 
But such stuff as this piece consists of 
could not have been composed for the 
stage, even by the Clown himself, after 
Shakespear's had got abroad. 

* Reed's Shakesp. v. 2. pp. 122, 226, 2<J1. 
t lb. v. 1 2. p. 262 and note to the title of Henry V. 
There appears to have been another play of Henry V, 
acted in 15Q7, that is lost tons. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 85 

There is no Dramatis Persons, and 
no division of acts or scenes. It thus 
begins, after the title before mentioned. 

H Enter the young Prince, Ned and 
Tom. 

Henry the Fifth. 
Come away Ned and Tom. 

Both. 
Here my Lord. 

Henry 5. 
Come away my lads. Tell me Sirs 
how much gold have you got, 
Ned. 
Faith my Lord, I have got five hun- 
dred pound, 

Henry 5. 

But tell me Tom, how much has't 
thou got? 

Tom. 
Faith my Lord, some foure hundred 
pound. 

Henry 5. 

Foure hundred pounds; bravely spoken 



86 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

Lads. But tell me Sirs, thinke you not 
that it was a villainous part of me to rob 
my father s recey vers ? 
Ned. 
Why no my Lord, it was but a tricke 
Of youth," 



While they are in this discourse — " En- 
ters Jockey" — and he, the reader will 
discover, is no less a personage than Sir 
John Oldcastle, the original, very remote, 
of Falstaff ; who tells the Prince, that 
there is hue and cry after his man who 
robbed a poor carrier last night. The 
Prince speaks of the man as a base- 
minded rascal, to rob a poor carrier ; but 
however he'll save his life. Then they 
discourse about their recent adventure 
of robbing the Receivers; from whom 
the Prince got a hard drubbing, who are 
close upon them in pursuit, and come 
upon the stage, after the marginal di- 
rection of Enters two Receyvers. The 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 87 

Prince accosts them, and they tell him 
of their loss, begging his intercession, 
on account of their being now unable 
to pay in their receits at the Exchequer. 
Then 

u Exit Pur sevant" — of whom nothing 
else appears. 

Here is enough to shew the ground 
work of the Carriers and Robbery scenes 
of Shakespear, by whom the two ad- 
ventures of this play are mixed into one. 
The conversation ends with their de- 
parture for the old tavern in Eastcheap. 
Then the Watch come on, to whom 
Enters the Theefe 

Who inquires the way to Eastcheap, 
and whom Dericke, the person robbed, 
accosts by the name of Gadshill, and he 
is arrested. Then a boy enters to tell 
the news of a riot and affray, by the 
young Prince and three or four more of 
his companions in their cups, which oc- 
casioned the Mayor and Sheriff to be sent 
for, by whom the Prince was carried to 



88 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

the Counter. So now we have got him 
safe in prison ; out of which however he 
soon returns, without warrant from the 
scene. 

The Thief on hearing that he must go 
to prison, begs, to be sent to that where 
his Master is. The Mayor and Sheriff 
are sent for to Court, where the King 
commends them for what they have done. 
Then 

" Enter Lord Chiefe Justice, Clarke 
of the Office, Jayler, John Cobler, 
Dericke and the Theefe." 

After forming a criminal Court, and 
proceeding to try the thief, (which is 
worth noting on account of the day 
named in their indictment,* when both 

* 20 May in the fourteenth year of the King, who 
died 20 March preceding. The Chief Justice died 
17th Dec. 1412, according to Mr. Malone's note, 
which refers to his tombstone for this date. I have 
looked into the Year books, and find his name occurs 
there in the pi eceding month of November, but not 
afterwards. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 89 

King and Chief Justice happened to be 
dead) the Prince, whom we lately left 
lodged in the Counter, re-appears thus. 
— " Enter the young Prince with Ned 
and Tom. 

Henry 5. 
Come away my lads. Gogs wounds 
ye villaine, what make you here ? I 
must goe aboute my businesse myselfe, 
and you must stand loytering here. 
Theefe. 
Why my Lord they have bound mee, 
and will not let me go. 
Henry 5. 
Have they bound they villain, why, 
how now my lord. 

Judge. 
I am glad to see your grace in good 
health. 

Henry 5. 
Why my lord this is my man. Tis 
marvell you knew him not, long be- 
fore this. I tell you he is a man of his 
hands. 



do character op henry the fifth 

Theefe. 
I> gogs wounds, that I am, try me 
who dare. 

Judge. 

Your grace shall finde small credite 

by acknowledging him to be your man. 

Henry 5. 

Why my lord, what hath he done ? 

Judge. 
And it please your majesty, he hath 
robbed a poore Carrier." 

After some skirmishing conversation 
between the Judge and the Prince, very 
suitable to the rest of the piece, it pro- 
ceeds, 

" Henry 5. 
But will you not let him goe ? 

Judge. 
I am sorry that his case is so ill. 

Henry 5. 
Tush, case me no casings, shall I have 
my man ? 

Judge. 
I cannot, nor I may not, my lord. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 91 

Henry 5. 
Nay, and I shall not, say, and then 
I am answered. 

Judge. 
No. 

Henry 5. 
Then I will have him. 

He giveth him a box on the eare. 
Ned. 
Gogs wounds my lord, shal I cut off 
his head ? 

Henry 5. 
No, I charge you draw not your swords. 
But get you hence, provide a noyse of 
musitians. Away, be gone. 

Exeunt the Theefe. 
Judge. 
Well my lord, I am content to take 
it at your hands. 

Henry 5. 
Nay, and you be not, you shall have 
more. 

Judge. 
Why I pray you my lord, who am I ? 



92 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

Henry 5. 

You, who knowes not you. Why 
man you are Lord Chiefe Justice of Eng- 
land. 

Judge. 

Your grace hath said truth, there- 
fore in striking me in this place you 
greatly abuse me, and not me only but 
also your father; whose lively person here 
in this place I do represent. And there- 
fore to teach you what prerogatives* 
meane, I commit you to the Fleet, until 
wee have spoken with your father. 

Henry 5* 
Why then belike you meane to send 
mee to the Fleete. 

* I suspect a popular allusion here (and it must have 
been a bold one then) to Queen Elizabeth's scolding 
her parliament for meddling with her prerogative, 
and sending some members to prison on that score, 
about the time when I suppose this scene in vogue, and 
when clowns said more than is set down for them. It is 
fully repeated in the second acting by the clown. 
See Hume's Hist, in 1579, 1586. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 93 

Judge. 

I, indeed, and therefore carry him 
away. 

Exeunt Henry V. with the Officers. 
Judge. 

Jayler carry the prisoner to Newgate 
againe until the next sises. 
Jayler. 

At your commandment my lord it 
shall be done." 

Here the author seems to have forgot- 
ten that his prisoner had set himself free 
before, by the Prince's authority, accord- 
ing to the direction of Exeunt theTheefe. 
Thisisfollowed by the entrance of Dericke 
and one of the watchmen, who act the 
box on the ear overagain, to the great 
delight of the audience. 

And here I quit the theatre : For my 
subject does not permit me in FalstafFs 
phrase, to play out the Play, or to produce 
more than this specimen of The famous 
Victories of Henry the Fifth. 

The serious part of the charge, (which 



94 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

is lost in that of the blow) the violent 
attempt to rescue a prisoner under trial., 
cannot be defended; and I must submit 
to the judgment or mercy of that age. 
As for us, we only know the story now 
in its original state, by the merit of the 
Prince's submission and repentance; 
therefore as the King forgave him for 
the rashness, and thanked God for its 
effects, we may ratify the pardon. It 
is to be regretted for the honour of our 
ancestors, that more outrageous viola- 
tions of the course of Justice than a res- 
cue such as this by the young Prince, 
may be found in the transactions of his 
contemporaries. What will the reader 
think of a Judge of the King's Bench 
of that generation conducting a body 
of 500 armed men,* to maintain his 
quarrel and overawe a noble Lord 
of great power, who was accompanied 

* Among whom are Knightes and Esquiers and 
Yomen that had ledynge of men on his partie. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 95 

by our very Chief Justice Gascoigne, 
his colleague and immediate superior, 
at an arbitration judicially appointed? 
And it happened, in the words of Sir 
E. Coke, about this time ; for it was in 
the year before that of the King's death. 
The case is preserved at length in the 
Parliament Roll (V. 3. 649, 650) and well 
worth reading.* The Judge though he 
submitted and asked pardon in plain 
English, had not as much merit as the 
young Prince ; for he did so by award 
of judgment. The conclusion of the 
quarrel was also in good English, award- 
ed likewise: viz. an excellent dinner 
of two fat oxen, twelve fat sheep, and 
two tons of Gascoigne wine. 

* I request the reader of my tract on High Treason 
to consider this case, if the subject should induce 
him to turn to it in pp. 6q, 70 $ for which a note 
of reference was intended to this passage of the Par- 
liament Rolls, but accidentally left out of the addi- 
tional notes to that Essay. 



96 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

Stow in his chronicle has nothing of the 
Chief Justice but what he is content to 
take from the Governor, in the chapter here 
quoted, which he copies ; and with the 
same view as its author, for the example's 
sake and to the honour of all concerned. 
He introduces it in his opening of the 
reign of Henry the fifth. 

II. The Prince of Wales turned out of the Council* 

Now having once got this rude box 
on the ear upon Chronicle record, we 
find its consequences extended to a 
greater event. For it is related that the 
King was so displeased with his son for 
this cause, that he turned him out of his 
f>lace in council, and appointed his bro- 
ther Clarence in his room. For the truth of 
this, let the proceedings in parliament* 
as I have produced them, speak. Yet 
so write Hall, Holinshed, Speed &c. 
It matters not who was the first or who 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 97 

the last to relate any thing so false. 
I have shewn hefore* that even the con- 
temporaries Elmham and T. Livius were 
as much mistaken, in what they believed 
of the time and cause of his being first 
appointed to that station. Hardyng 
another contemporary seems to have been 
as ignorant as they, in the following pas- 
sage of his Chronicle* which would in- 
duce a reader to suppose that the King 
shewed this displeasure towards Prince 
Henry, for having sent aid to the Duke 
of Burgundy. This is quite contrary 
to them, and is not directly asserted* 
The stanza runs thus in his 209th chapter. 

* The King discharged the Prince from his counsaile 

And set my lord Sir Thomas in his stede 

Chiefe of Counsaile, for the King's more avayle. 

For which the Prince of wrath and wilful hede 

Again him made debate and froward hede. 

With whom the King took part, and held the felde 

To tyme the Prince unto the King him yelde " 

The argument of this chapter is " How 

* Pa. 50. 
H 



98 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

the Prince Henry of Wales sent power 
to the Duke of Burgundy to help him; 
thetwoUmfrevilles, Sir John Gray, with 
other &c." He tells of their success in 
France, and coming home rewarded, 
and Gilbert Umfreville made Earl of 
Kyme in France: and how the Duke 
thanked the Prince for sending them. 
After which immediately follows the 
stanza above quoted. It is impossible 
to reconcile the two stories, and I at- 
tempt no more than to shew that neither 
is warranted by the records of parlia- 
ment. 

II L The Prince guilty of a Riot in the Streets, and 
of robbing on the Highway. 

There are two passages in the scenes 
of our old comedy, which when com- 
pared with Stow's Chronicle, authorise 
lis to believe that two of the adventures 
brought upon the stage to the Prince's 
dishonour, have had more foundation 
in fact than that of striking the judge. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 99 

If the chronicles borrowed this from the 
play, the play has perhaps taken the 

debt again with compound interest from 
the chronicles, and with greater extra- 
vagance. The scene transcribed in pp. 
86, 87, makes the Prince talk of robbing 
the Receivers going to the Exchequer : 
And a boy there tells of a riot by the 
Prince and his companions, which was 
quieted by the coming of the Mayor 
and Sheriff. What if this riot should 
prove a true breach of the peace, the 
scene really in East Cheap, and the 
King's sons the offenders, yet Henry of 
Monmouth not among them ? What 
if it should turn out to be true, that 
this Prince royal did really commit a 
robbery of Receivers on their way to 
London with money ? 

Stow in his narrative of the year 1411 
has this paragraph. " Upon the even of 
St. John Baptist, Thomas and John the 
King's sons being in Eastcheap at 
London, at supper after midnight, a 
h 2 



100 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

great debate happened between their men 
and men of the Court, lasting an hour, 
till the Mayor and Sheriffs with other 
citizens ceased the same." 

Here would be fine matter of revenge 
afforded to the spirit of Falstaff, against 
his sober-blooded boy Lord John of Lan- 
caster !* But the players having once got 
possession of the Prince of Wales for a 
subject, all facts must be moulded to 
fit his person. The pranks of the Lords 
Thomas and John were thought too 
good for younger brothers, and to suit 
better with the established theatrical 
reputation of young Hopeful the heir 
apparent. I believe the above to be a 
probable account of the introduction 
of the riot adventure, by a pardonable 
though wilfull error of the Playbook. 
The author found the tale of a riot royal 
extant in choice English, with the name 
of some grave chronicler in folio to walr- 

* See 2d part Hen. 4, act 4, sc. 7. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 101 

rant it, and was indifferent to the names 
of the parties adores fabulcz* 

For The Receivers, there is the follow- 
ing passage in Stow's beginning of the 
reign, in describing the new King's cha- 
racter. u He lived somewhat insolently, 
insomuch that whilst his father lived, 
being accompanied with some of his 
young lords and gentlemen, he would wait 
in disguised array for his awn Receivers, 
and distress them of their money. And 
sometimes at such enterprises both he 
and his company were sorely beaten. 
And when his Receivers made to him 
their complaints how they were robbed 

* There is a ballad of Henry the fourth's time 
printed among Chaucer's works (edit. 1721. pa. 546.) 
addressed to the four young Princes, to dissuade them 
from spending time in youthedfolily - } from whence 
it may be inferred that all the brothers had the cha- 
racter of being well inclined to gaiety. It is noticed 
by Malone, as quoted in 12 Reed p. 127. The four 
Princes were as near together in age as might be. 
According to W. of Worcester (2. Hearn Lib. Nig, 
p. 443) their births were in 1387, 8, 9, 90. 



102 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

in coming unto him, he would give 
them discharge of so much money as 
they had lost. And besides that, they 
should not depart from him without great 
rewards for their trouble and vexation; 
especially they should be rewarded, that 
best had resisted him and his company, 
and of whom he had received the great- 
est and most strokes. And for example 
Sir T. Eyot writeth thus—" &c. copying 
the chapter inserted at p. 79. 

Here we have a natural and credible 
account of a youthful frolick ; boyish 
would perhaps be a better word, and 
more agreeable to the truth : Though the 
words of Stow, whilst his father lived, 
are too loose to usher in such a fact. Not 
indeed creditable to a young Prince at 
any time, but certainly consistent ac- 
cording to the state of times and man- 
ners with great and good qualities, with- 
out leaving any stain of disgrace, either 
for keeping low company or adopting 
their profligacy. The young lords his 



WHEN PRINCE OP WALES. 103 

companions who helped him to run down 
a Buck, according to Elmham, would 
not be backward in assisting him to run 
down one of his Bailiffs. But see how 
a good story may be improved ! More 
especially when dressed up for the theatre, 
according to the fashion of the times. 



IF. The Prince's Debaucheries and vicious 
Companions. 

How is this charge made out ? 
Oh — there is Falstaff, all in all. 

Then you must keep to your Prince 
at the Playhouse, for there is no such 
companion out of it ; and we have no 
such Prince royal in the race of Planta- 
genet. The only companions of young 
Henry of Monmouth who are known, 
were Chiefs in war and Statesmen in place ; 
as good as Mr. Pope's best companions 
who were out of those employments. 

Why surely the whole current of his- 
tory is so — 



104 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

" Ay there's the rub." Let us go 
up this stream, and examine it till 
we arrive at its spring in Lenton 
Priory. 

Few of the writers have gone there. 
Each of them has studied how to vary 
the phrases of his predecessor, upon a 
matter which he supposed established. 
Not one has taken Elmham's grain of a 
text, and tried to beat it out for leaf-gold 
to adorn his page; but as a drug for 
historical experiments in the art of co- 
louring; and to try how many times 
it might be multiplied or varied. 

I should like to present the reader 
with a kind of polyglott page in co- 
lumns, consisting of those passages of 
the historians which describe the begin- 
ning of Henry the fifth's reign, to shew 
how little attention any one of them has 
paid to facts and authority, and how in- 
consistent they are with each other and 
themselves. But they are too many and 
long and exuberant. Dr. Henry whom 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 105 

I respect the most, is almost as faulty as 
Hume in this article. Rapin equally so, 
and Carte not much better. They con- 
tent themselves with citing authors 
whom, if they did read, they misrepre- 
sent, and manifestly describe the cha- 
racter of the young King during his 
father's life, from that prevailing notion 
which we all acquire at school. 

Dr. Henry puts in the margin of his 
first page, as an established article for 
history, His youthful Frolicks. Having 
in the preceding section mentioned his 
frolicksome and disorderly conduct, as 
the cause of much vexation to his father. 
But I, standing here for the truth of his- 
tory cannot accept so mild a phrase, 
if the author believes and would have 
us believe the books he quotes. It is 
vice and profligacy or nothing at all. 
The only youthful frolick related of him 
with an appearance of truth, is that by 
Stow beforementioned, of his robbing 
the receivers of his own rents for the 



106 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH. 

sake of laughing at their distress. But 
I find no mention of this frolick in mo- 
dern times. Yet it is probably true, 
and merits no harder name than youth- 
ful frolick; understood, as it must be 
of his boyish days. In a single page 
of Dr. Henry we have 

Suspicions of the people concerning his 
character — Object of the peoples love and 
the father's jealousy in early life — Out 
of military employment for four or five 
years before his accession, and excluded 
from the Cabinet — Direct violations of 
law — for which he was twice imprisoned, 
once by the Chief Justice and once by the 
Mayor of Coventry — Licentious compa- 
nions of his former riots. The reader of 
the foregoing pages is qualified to put 
a fair estimate on these accusations, and 
may dismiss them all except the charge 
I have now in hand. The author has 
been a little more cautious than Hume 
in the above description, and is there- 
fore less liable to censure. 



WHEN PRINCE OP WALES. 107 

Hume has taken every thing on this 
subject that could be found without 
going far, and in his usual way has made 
an agreeable piece of writing for the 
reader's entertainment ; but as void of 
foundation and free from inquiry, as the 
scenes of our poet. David Hume the Philo- 
sopher has shewn himself here as poetical 
as the Prior of Lenton. All the charges 
quoted from Dr. Henry are given by him, 
and more : For he introduces the Chief 
Justice who was then dead, trembling to 
approach the royal presence, Sec. &c. Im- 
proves the robbery scene of the stage 
into a practice of attacking passengers on 
the streets and highways. Yet his love 
of royal blood and good manners will 
not permit him to relate the blow given 
to the judge, though he seems to believe 
it. 

Thomas Carte the Englishman, the so- 
lid and inquisitive Carte has been idle 
here. In his opening of this reign he 
writes thus of Henry V. " He had shew- 



308 CHARACTER OK HENRY THE FIFTH 

ed his valour and martial genius in the 
battle of Shrewsbury and the war against 
the Welsh ; and was so fond of exerting 
them that if serious occasions did not 
offer, he would exercise them in frolicks. 
The fire of youth and the dissolute com- 
panions that fell in his way led him into 
many extravagances ; for one of which 
at Cheylesmore (a house belonging to the 
Duchy of Cornwall within the liberty of 
Coventry) he had been the last year taken 
into custody by John Hornesby the Mayor 
of that city.* And Sir W. Gascoigne 

* I believe this is the first introduction of the story 
from Coventry, owing perhaps to Carte's coming from 
this county. I am inclined to send it to Coventry 
again, though Dr. Henry repeats it on Carte's autho- 
rity. This authority is from Append, ad Fordun. Scot, 
Chron. p. 1444. in Hearne's edition, from an old 
chronicle of the Mayors of Coventry. But the page 
referred to does not yield as much as it stands for in 
Carte. It is said of John Hornesby as Mayor in 
1412. " He arrested the Prince in priory of Coven- 
try ." Cheylesmore and the Duchy of Cornwall do not 
appear there, and are perhaps to be imputed to Carte's 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 109 

Chief Justice of the King's Bench is 
said to have ordered him to prison upon 
another occasion. The representation of 
his behaviour in submitting humbly to 
that order doth him honour ; and shews 
evidently that how wild a rake soever 
he was, he did not want a large fund 
of good sense, and could come to him- 
self on a moment's reflection. His sallies 
did not hinder him from being univer- 
sally beloved, the natural if not neces- 

local knowledge. The next article to this, which 
contains the Mayor of the succeeding year, has sub- 
joined. " In his year King Henry V. began to reign." 
If the event had been as remarkable as Carte supposes, 
it would probably have drawn something more from 
the Chronicler's pen, being so near to the Prince's 
becoming really a new man and King. What the 
arrest was, and what Prince was arrested, are not 
to be discovered. If it had been as good as the other 
good things told of Henry of Monmouth upon as 
good authority, we may be sure that it would have 
found its way to the theatre and play books. More 
especially when we consider that Shakespear cama 
from the neighbourhood of this transaction. 



1 10 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

sary effect of agreeable qualities ; and 
his court was always crouded by the 
nobility, whilst his father's was in a 
manner empty." On his accession " he 
became in a manner a new man, pious 
devout sober continent considerate equi- 
table wise; in his actions noble, in bu- 
siness assiduous, in all his behaviour ma- 
jestick ; and bidding adieu at once to his 
follies, discharged his former companions 
from daring to appear in his presence 
till they had reformed their manners." 

Rapin overcharges the character still 
more. His court was the receptacle of 
libertines debauchees parasites buffoons and 
the like (I quote the English translation.) 
Daily excesses and extravagant pranks. — 
His father had always kept him at a dis- 
tance from affairs. Jealous of his victories, 
he removed him from all warlike as he had 
done from all civil offices. " Et alia enor- 
mia," a lawyer would exclaim who had 
been conversant in our latin pleadings. 

Speed's history written in the reign of 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. Ill 

James the first, was not out of fashion 
when Rapin wrote ; from whom as an 
established author, Trussel copied this part 
of his subject. Speed therefore may be 
classed here as next before Rapin ; but I 
do not find him quoted by that author in 
this part. His beginning of this reign 
has the merit of containing; less than some 
of his predecessors, of the youthful ex- 
travagances and bad companions : Except 
in one glaring and faulty example, which 
is that of assaulting the Judge. He quotes 
Elyots Governor, of which he only 
copies a part, and that incorrectly ; to 
which he adds, that the Prince gave the 
Judge a bloxo on the face, as if this were a 
part of the original author. Yet though 
perhaps he had Holinshed fresh before 
him, he avoids some of his inconsisten- 
cies relating to our Prince. Iris pleasant 
to observe the delicate course he takes to 
introduce the current tales of youthful 
excesses, 8p. After describing him as 
like Titus, the lovely darling and delightful 



112 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

joy of mankind, he continues " But as 
Titus is taxed by his story writers, in 
youth to have been riotous profuse 
wasteful and wanton — so if we will be- 
lieve what others have writ* Henry was 
wild when he was a Prince, 8$c" He 
cites Stow Grafton and Walsingham ; 
but would have done better to have fol- 
lowed Stow only, who immediately pre- 
ceded him, and who by writing after 
Holinshed had the means of examin- 
ing and weighing his work, and shews 
often that he did so. 

Stow rejects a great deal of what Hoi- 
linshed wrote of Henry of Monmouth's 
youthful days; for the only example 
given by him of what he calls living 
somewhat insolently, besides the chapter 
from Sir T. Elyot, is the prank of rob- 
bing his own bailiffs. He mentions in- 
deed the sudden change upon his accession, 
(the chief point of the chronicler's creed 

* Here in the margin he cites T. Livius. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 113 

here) without having related any thing 
before, from which there could have 
been a change made. 

Holinshed was his contemporary, but 
first in order. As I know little of this long 
established author but what belongs to my 
present subject, I can only judge of him 
by that. There I find great negligence 
and inconsistency. He gives a particu- 
lar description, which I shall have occa* 
sion to recur to, of the Prince's going to 
Court with a great train of noblemen and 
other his friends that wished him well, to 
clear himself to the King of suspicions 
entertained by him to his prejudice. De- 
scribes the interview of the father and 
son, and the hearty reconciliation which 
it produced between them, and concludes 
it with these words " So by his great 
wisdom was the wrongful suspicion re- 
moved." A little after he adds, that it 
might have had a contrary effect ; for 
some — €( privily charged him with riot 
and other uncivil demeanors unseemly 
i 



1 14 CHARACTER OP HENRY THE TlVTti 

for a prince. Indeed he was youthfully 
given, grown to audacity, and had cho- 
sen him companions agreeable to his age, 
with whom he spent the time in such 
recreations exercises and delights as he 
fancied. But yet (it should seem by 
the report of some writers) that his be- 
haviour was not offensive, or at least 
tending to the damage of any body. 
Sith he had a care to avoid doing of wrong, 
and to tender his affections within the tract 
of virtue. Whereby he opened unto 
himself a ready passage of good liking 
among the prudent sort, and was beloved 
of such as could discern his disposition; 
which was in no degree so excessive as 
that he deserved in such vehement man- 
ner to be suspected. In whose dispraise 
I find little, but to his praise very- much. 
Parcels whereof I will deliver by the 
way, as a metyard w r hereby the residue 
may be measured." He then quotes latin 
verses of a panegyrick made upon him 
m his youth by Christopher OclamL 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 115 

After this, who would expect to find the 
following passages* in the introduction 
of the new reign of Henry the fifth ? 
" Such great hope and good expectation 
was had of this man's fortunate success 
to follow* that within three days after 
his father's decease, divers noblemen and 
honourable personages did to him ho- 
mage, &c." Then, after relating the coro- 
nation on the very stormy day, on which 
divers interpretations were made,f as in 
Walsingham, he proceeds. 

"But this King even at first appoint- 
ing with himself to shew that in his 
person princely honours should change 
publick manners, lie determined to 
put on him the shape of a new man. 
For whereas aforetime he had made him- 
self a companion unto misruly mates of 

* New 4to. edit. Vol. 3. p. 61. 

f It is remarkable that this ill omen so frequently 
repeated, is not noticed by the first writer Elmham p 
though it is by Otterburn. 

12 



116 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

dissolute order and life, he now banished 

them all from his presence, &c. &c. 

calling to mind how once he had offended 
his father by striking the Chief Justice 
had been expelled the Privy Coun- 
cil banished the Court and his 

brother Clarence preferred in his stead. — " 
For -all which he can cite no better 
authority than Latin verses from OclandV 
Anglorum Pr&lia> nothing to the pur- 
pose. What is this but the composition 
of a school-boy at his task, copying from 
one author and then another, to eke out 
his page? What he has of honours and 
manners appears to be taken from Hall, 
who takes from Polydore Vergil ; with 
which he mixes paragraphs from his Eng- 
lish predecessors ; But the whole toge- 
ther is unworthy of the name of history. 
Hall, who is copied by Grafton, takes 
the words of Fabian concerning Henry 
of Monmouth, together with a partial 
translation of Polydore Vergil. For 
Hall's prefixed list of authors has not 



WHEN PIIINCE OF WALES, 117 

the names of Walsingham, T. Livius and 
Elmham. He dwells upon the extraor- 
dinary and sudden change from vice to 
virtue, upon the Prince's becoming King, 
and the dismissal modo et forma of his 
loose companions ; and introduces in paren- 
thesis the striking the Chief Justice on 
the fact) and being therefore banished 
from Court and Council. 

Yet he had related nothing in the 
course of Henry the fourth's reign, to 
inform us of his disposition or behaviour. 
At the same time he shews that what he 
writes deserves no regard; for he de- 
scribes the unusual pressing forward of 
the nobility to pay him homage before 
the coronation, because ? they conceived 
a good expectation both of his virtuous 
beginnings, and also of his fortunate suc- 
cess in all things which should be attempted 
or begun during the time of his pros- 
perous reign and fortunate empire." If 
what he writes on the other side were 



118 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

true, they must have conceived a very 
bad expectation. of him. 

Polydore probably wrote after Fabian. 
He came to this country to write our his- 
tory at the request of Henry the seventh, 
in whose reign what we now have 
from him of former reigns was com- 
posed. In writing of our prince, he 
seems to pay little regard to what he may 
have found to his prejudice ; for he com- 
mences the account of his reign withpane- 
gyrick, as of one of whom the best hopes 
had been conceived from his early youth. 
He writes of his parting with his young 
companions, not for the purpose of 
blaming him for former misbehaviour, 
like his copiers ; but because the Prince 
felt that the high elevation of royalty, and 
change of place, required a change of man- 
ners. He therefore took grave and wise 
counsellors in the room of those who 
had been the companions of his youth 
and wantonness. This I take to be the 
just and fair meaning of his expressions. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 110 

At the same time I would not rely upon 
his authority, if it stood alone ; and 
would rather quote him for what he does 
not, than what he does sav. I derive 
from him a negative service of this kind 
to my argument here, for the above is 
the substance of all that he writes upon 
the early character of Henry the fifth.* 

Fabian's opening of Henry the fifth's 
reign has the following passage. " This 
man before the death of his father applied 
himself unto all vice and insolencj^ and 

* The following is from the Basle edition of P. Ver- 
gil 1557, P« 439. /' — adeb Henricus ab ineunte aetate 
spem omnibus optima indolis fecit.- Hie vir hie 
fuit qui a primo docuit honores, ut est in proverbio* 
debeant mutare mores : Quippe qui statim ut est rex 
factus, statuens alio atque babebat vitse instituto sibi 
utendum, omnes suos cequales quibuscum pueritiam, 
quae lasciviae et insolentiae ut plurimum est plena, 
egerat, ab se relegavit, illisq. regiam interdixit -, ac 
loco illorum fortissimos gravissimos quosq. viros in 
familiaritatem recepit 3 in quibus judicarat et in ca- 
piendo consilio prudentiam summam inesse.et in dando 
iidem, ut eorum consilio raonitis prudentii juvaretur," 



120 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

drew unto himself rioters and wild dis- 
posed persons : But after he was admitted 
to the rule of the land, anon and suddenly 
he became a new man, and turned all that 
rage and wildness to soberness and wise 
sadness, and the vice into constant vir- 
tue." His conclusion of the last reign 
affords a good specimen of his qualifica- 
tion for writing it. He names among the 
King's children, as fifth son/ Henry the 
rich Cardinal, and two other sons by 
Katherine Swinford ; which mistake he 
had made before, and refers to it again. 

Caxton who wrote under Edward the 
fourth, and may have taken Walsingham 
or Elmham for his guide, has a chapter 
at the end of his reign of Henry the 
fifth, after relating his death and fune- 
ral, under this title. " Of the laud of 
King Henry the Fifth, and what he or- 
dained for King Richard." He then pro- 
ceeds, " Here is to be noted that the 
King Henry 5, was a noble Prince after 
he was King and crowned ; howbeit be- 



WHEN PRINCE OP WALES. 121 

fore in his youth he had been wild reck- 
less and spared nothing of his lusts nor 
desires, but accomplished them after his 
liking. But as soon as he was crowned 
anointed and sacred, anon suddenly he was 
changed into a nexo man, and all his in- 
tent to live virtuously in maintaining of 
holy church, destroying of hereticks, 
keeping justice, and defending of his 
realm and subjects."* We may consider 
this as very moderate, if we reflect on 
what Caxton has said in describing his 
additions to the Polychronicon. He begs 
every reader's indulgent correction, " for 
if I coulde have founde moo stories I 

woulde have sette in it moo " which 

was the current practice of the Chroni- 
clers. More stories made the excellence 
of one above another. 

John Rous (or Ross) who was next 

* I quote in modern spelling, from a MS. in Bibl. 
Cott. Claud. A. 8, which seems the same in general 
as the edition printed by himself 1482, and another by 
W. deWordeof 1520. 



122 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

before Caxton and his contemporary, was 
a partizan of York. But his short account 
of Henry the fifth contains nothing but 
encomium. He wrote in Latin.* This 
brings us up to Walsingham and Otter- 
burn, and the birth of the New Man\ 
upon Henry the fourth's death. For 
Elmham had exceeded them in the mar- 
vellous, and had gone up to the very seat 
of the Muses ; having made night change 
into day, and darkness into light. And 
here perhaps the reader will be well 
pleased to take leave of our CtjtOtttCietS. 
It is obvious that the love of the mar- 
vellous in the passages quoted has pos- 
sessed them all. Having once caught 
hold of the new birth of the penitent it 
was too good to be given up, and de- 
scended from one to another, as it were by 
unction. But Holinshed, writing while 
a popular comedy on the subject was in 

* Hist. Regum Angliae edit Hearne in Hen* 5. 
f Page 30, 110, 115, before. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 123 

vogue, gave a general currency to the 
fable past all cure. Thus are Chronicles 
compiled ; and length of time, which 
helps to confound them all, serves also 
to make them venerable. I wish there 
were an ivy in historical learning, to 
grow upon the rude monuments of its 
infancy, and hide their awkward projec- 
tions under a simple evergreen. If any 
one of these makers of characters had 
gone to the true sources of information, 
the res gestce of their subject, it is impos- 
sible that such trash could have been 
preserved in their compilations. We 
should not have been " mocked and de- 
luded all this while (to use a sentence of 
Milton's*) with ragged notions and bab- 
blements." But if, according to Hardyng, 
he was 

A new man made by all good regimence 9 
the true receipt for this composition must 
be followed. The first essential of such 

* Tractate of Education. 



124 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

regeneration, according to good regirnence, 
is the recovery from sin and wickedness. 
But how can this be without such pre- 
vious sin ? The sin therefore must be 
established and fixed by the same chro- 
nicling prescription ; and thus the rege- 
neration, by rule of reverse, becomes evi- 
dence of the fact from which it ought 
itself to spring. 

If the young prince was given to dis- 
sipation and lasciviousness, when not en- 
gaged in arms, as we are told he was by 
the only writer who can require our 
belief, we must give it in his measure. 
Elmham is he. In him it is free from all 
degrading circumstances. There is nei- 
ther low company, nor profligate compa- 
nions mentioned by him, nor by T. Li- 
vius his copier, nor by Hardyng Otter- 
burn and Walsingham who succeeded 
them, nor by Rous the Yorkist who came 
next, nor by Caxton or Polydore. Fa- 
bian the Alderman of London, and chro- 
nicler of its Mayors and Sheriffs, seems 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 125 

to have been the leader in this line of 
accusation. But as he knew nothing at 
all of the Prince's good deeds, and no- 
thing of his life before his accession but 
the tale of his bad company, he merits 
little regard. He gives no voucher for 
his charge of all vice and insokncy, and 
we know that his betters had not gone 
so far. 

Being then dissipated as a youth, 
Henry must have had companions of his 
pleasures. It does not follow that they 
were abandoned or vicious or low. The 
associates of one of his warlike disposition 
were probably military men, whose habits 
frequently lead them to dissipation. If 
at this age the feathers of his crest played 
wantonly over his brow, we are not ob- 
liged to add ungracefully. And he must 
have been dextrous too in finding play 
time, in that hardy and busy course of 
martial life in which he was employed. 
The only passages to be found on this 
subject in any of the authors quoted, that 



126 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

merit attention, describe his companions 
as young lords and gentlemen. Stow makes 
use of that description in the only frolick 
he relates. And though he preserves the 
story of dismissing his former compa- 
nions, he calls them by that phrase, as 
the followers of his young acts ; and adds 
that he was willing to keep about him 
still, in his state of royalty, such as would 
change their manners. We have no 
authority for believing that there was any 
thing base or degrading in his associates. 
They who attribute such courses to Henry 
of Monmouth, wrote after the theatres 
had exhibited his character in a dress of 
their own, at a time when indecency and 
grossness of manners prevailed in all 
stage exhibitions. Falstaff and Poms 
and Peto are his companions there. 

But the only vicious character* we 
read of, and actually know to have been 
his companion, was the Duke of York j* 

* Bef. pa. 58, Speech to the Parliament. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 1^7 

who indeed had once degraded himself 
even to infamy. But the effects of 
this connection were extraordinary, and 
to the honour of the parties so con- 
cerned. The youth was not tainted, 
and the elder was reformed. Our Prince 
restored him to honour in every sense 
of the word, and to the useful service 
of his country. 

Take the reflection made upon his 
vices by our first author his contempo- 
rary.* " They did not even for a moment, 
letdown the magnanimity of his charac- 
ter." The author of one of the finest 
pieces of writing in our language, j* who 
has made it convey to Princes some 
useful lessons on their failings, has illus- 
trated this sentiment in the happiest 
manner, and by examples of the highest 
note. He distinguishes justly between 
the vices or failings that degrade a Prince, 
and those which by not shewing them- 

* Bef. pa. 11. 
t Lord Bolinbroke. Idea of a Patriot King. 



124 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

selves in any scandalous appearances, are 
lost in the lustre of bright and shining 
qualities. Our Henry seems to have 
been a fit example for his text, while 
on the stage of life and before he 
filled the stage of fancy, as good as those 
he produces to inforce his moral, of 
Csesar and Scipio and Henry the fourth 
of France. After observing that Princea 
are exposed to more and stronger temp- 
tations than other men, he adds. u The 
elevation in which they are placed, as it 
gives them great advantages, gives them 
great disadvantages too that often coun- 
tervail the former. Thus for instance, a 
little merit in a Prince is seen and felt by 
numbers : It is multiplied as it were, and 
in proportion to this effect his reputation 
is raised by it. But then a little failing 
is seen and felt by numbers too : It is 
multiplied in the same manner, and his 
reputation sinks in the same proportion/' 
I have named the Duke of York as his 
only companion, whose name has been 
handed down to us authentically. If we 



WHEN PRINCE OP WALES. 129 

could rely upon Hall,* we might add to 
him Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham; 
and I have found instruments in Rymer 
that induce me to do so. Hall relates 
the beginning of the persecution of the 
Wickliffites, whose chief that nobleman 
was, in the first year of his reign. He 
calls him a valiant captain and hardy 
gentleman, accused to the Archbishop ; 
who knowing him to be highly in the Kings 
favor, informed the King of it. The 
King wished to save him, and in private 
discourse endeavoured to reclaim the 
strayed sheep, for which Oldcastle was 
very grateful ; but his zeal and firmness 
rendered the King's endeavours vain. 
Henry finding him determined, judged 
it necessary to yield to the Arch- 
bishop's request, and he was left to the 
rigour of the ecclesiastical law. He 
appears to have been one of the distin- 
guished warriors of Henry the fourth's 

* Pa, 48. new edit. 4to. 
K 



130 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

reign, and served in the Welsh war 
under the Prince of Wales from the 
beginning.* I conceive therefore that 
here the intimacy was formed, with him 
as well as the Duke of York. When 
afterwards the King sent an aid to the 
Duke of Burgundy in 1411, as before 
related,! he was one of the principal 
commanders of the expedition. Perhaps 
the circumstance of the troops being led 
by officers in the Prince's favour, or of 
his recommendation, occasioned Elmham 
and others to write that he had been ap- 
plied to for them. 

Oldcastle's history is well known, and 
the criticks on Shakespear have taken 
pains to discover every part of it,J in 
order to account for his being brought 
on the stage in the Prince's company, as 

* 8Rym. F. 331. and 498. 

t Pa. 50. 

% See Malone's note to the epilogue of 2d pt. Hen. 

4. and the 2d scene of 3d act ; #nd Steevens's to the 

title-page of Hen. 5. with Malone's observations 

on the first part. 



WHEN PRINCE OP WALES. 131 

he is in the old play of Henry the fifth. 
The above passages may serve to be ad- 
ded to their notes. There were probably 
some stories of his wit or waggery to- 
wards the Prince preserved in tradition, 
which the players caught up. But his 
real character becoming better known 
by the popular history of the reforma- 
tion, in which his suffering for the doc- 
trines of Wickliffe made a conspicuous 
figure, it acquired the ascendancy over 
the false one brought on the stage ; the 
reverse of which has happened to that 
of our Prince. Steevens has produced the 
prologue to a play called Sir John Oldcas- 
tle, published in 1600 under Shakespear's 
name (now rejected from his works) which 
proves that the writer was anxious to 
clear himself from the suspicion of ex* 
posing the real Oldcastle to laughter, 
and that the audience of that time 
would have been displeased w r ith such 
freedom. He therefore represents him as 

"A valiant martyr and a virtuous Peer." 

& 2 



132 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

If Henry the fourth was suspected of 
having imbibed from his father that 
heresy not to be absolved, of wishing 
to lessen the overgrown possessions of 
the clergy, Oldcastle openly declared 
that desire, and endeavoured to carry 
it into effect; and at the same time em- 
braced with zeal the religious tenets of 
Wickliffe. But the King took care af- 
terwards to accommodate his principles 
to the church, for which her members 
repaid him amply both in money and 
good will. I suspect that some youth- 
ful levity of expression leaning that, way 
may have escaped Prince Henry, which 
was hastily caught up and remembered 
against him ; and his intimacy with the 
Lollard knight would help to fix the 
imputation of his favouring the sect. 
If this conjecture,* for it is no more, 

* It is worth noticing in this place that Wiekliffe 
had belonged at first to Queen's College Oxford, where 
we are told some of his followers resided, In his 



WHKN PRINCE OF WALES. 133 

should be true, we might conclude that 
he took pains to make the declaration 
of his abhorrence of that sect as publick 
as possible, in order to remove any such 
opinion. I cannot think that mere irre- 
gularity of life in a young prince, would 
have appeared to the corrupt monks of 
that age, so heinous as to require all 
the severe mortification ascribed by them 
to his marvellous repentance. 

V. The Prince offended his father and em- 
bittered his last days. 

I believe that he might to a certaiu 
degree; not by his vices, but by great 
and shining qualities, and the popularity 
attending upon them. It is difficult to 
account for the proceedings in parliament 
recited in pp. 58, 65, 6, unless we suppose 
the King jealous of the fame and influence 
of his son. On the other hand, if that 

day, Oxford was distinguished for favouring his doc- 
trines. He died in 1384. 



134 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

were the case, the Speaker's conduct may 
at once be explained. The commons 
take their favourite's part, and urge their 
sovereign to do him the honour which 
they believe unjustly witheld, by the 
King's fears of him and them. We 
should have lost some admirable scenes* 
if Shakespear had thought so. Yet we 
may still have the enjoyment of them 
without being obliged to call for proofs. 

Young Henry's interposition (as in pa. 
58,) in the Duke of York's favour, 
against whom the King seems to have 
been incensed, must have been disagree- 
able^ his father; but no man will be 
inclined to blame the Prince for this or 
accuse him of undutiful behaviour. On 
the contrary, he seems to deserve praise 
for generosity and gratitude towards a 
Prince of his blood and fellow soldier 
who had been unduly slighted. 

It was the rare fortune of Henry the 

* Second part H. 4. act 4. sc. 10, 11. 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 135 

fourth to have four sons who were all 
youths of fine parts and great abilities. 
He made use of them accordingly in 
the service of the state, and they ap- 
pear to have assisted their father in such 
employment in an early stage of life. But if 
this condition of a family is to be envied, 
it is likewise subject to danger and in- 
convenience, especially in that of a so- 
vereign, by producing rivalship and 
hatred, and their evil consequences 
among courtiers and dependents. The 
domestick lot of Edward the third, 
both good and evil in this respect, de 
scended upon his grandson of Lancaster, 
and forms a remarkable occurrence in the 
history of man ; by presenting two such 
fine generations from the same stock so 
near together. So much for the honour 
of Plantagenet. Yet John of Gaunt 
was suspected of designs against the 
succession of his nephew, son of his 
renowned elder brother ; and Thomas 
of Clarence was said to have caused or 



136 CHARACTER OP HENRY THE FIFTH 

fomented his father's suspicions of Henry 
of Monmouth. The good sense and 
open heart of the latter dissipated their 
effects for the time ; but if the King- 
had lived much longer, they might have 
produced more evil than happened in the 
grandfather's days. 

Young Henry's temper led him to 
take the following course to cure his 
father's jealousy and defeat the faction 
that promoted it. When he found their 
measures against him strengthened by 
the King's favour, he suddenly drew 
together all his friends and dependents 
from different parts, of whom he formed 
a large train richly dressed, and with 
them proceeded as in parade to the 
Court which was then kept at Westmin- 
ster, to demand a public audience of the 
King, that he might in the most public 
manner justify himself and confound 
his enemies. It had the usual effect 
of bold and direct measures that are 
founded in justice. The Prince openly 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 137 

called upon his father to clear him from 
the accusations of his enemies, the Court 
slanderers were abashed, and the King- 
was obliged to see his son's character 
with his 'own eyes, and acquit him. This 
transaction happened in the summer next 
before the King's death ; and is described 
at length by Holinshed, with many formal 
and some fabulous particulars,* according 
to the times, with orations from the 
father and son.f But he concludes with 
the sensible reflection upon the Prince's 
conduct before cited.J 

What Otterburn has written upon this 
adventure is fit to be introduced here, 
for it seems to lead to a very probable 
cause of the disagreement between the 
father and son. According to him the 
King had been persuaded by the Prince's 

* And inconsistencies, I might have added. For he 
begins with the tales that caused the King not to favour 
Henry as in times past. 

t New 4to. edit. V. 3, p. 53. 

X Pa, 113. See the Note at the end. 



138 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

enemies to confer upon Clarence the 
conduct of a new expedition to France, 
in favour of the Duke of Orleans, 
while the troops before sent to the Duke 
of Burgundy against him were still in 
France upon that service. If, as some 
write, this measure had been advised and 
planned by Prince Henry, it was natural 
that the sudden change to a contrary 
course, and against his advice ; or with a 
view to thwart him, and strengthen the 
party of his younger brother and rival, 
should have offended and irritated him. 

The reader would startle if I should 
add a chapter here under the following 
head, viz. The Prkice of 'Wales his fathers 
favourite son. I shall therefore only 
hint, that I could maintain this argument 
by a strong piece of evidence of the 
highest authority ; stronger than any that 
has been brought to prove the contrary. 
The Will of Henry the fourth* dated 21 
Jan. 1408, (1409 N. S.) after the debates 

* Nichols Collect, of Roy. Wills, p. 204, 5 a 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 139 

in parliament before mentioned in p. 58, 
and after the Prince had left his command 
in Wales, and may be supposed to have 
resided more in London and to have 
been guilty of irregularities, if ever he 
was, this Will names him in an affectionate 
manner, and him only of all the children. 
The King particularly recommends to his 
care to provide for three of his servants 
who had deserved well ; and then makes 
him his executor in the following words 
(in modern spelling.) " And for to exe- 
cute this testament well and truly, for 
great trust that I have on my son the 
Prince, I ordain and make him my exe- 
cutor of my testament foresaid, calling to 
him such as he thinketh in his discretion 
that can and will labour to the soonest 
speed of my Will comprehended in this 
my testament. And to fulfil truly all 
things foresaid I charge my foresaid son 
upon my blessing." 

It does not affect the present point to 
add, that the King appears to have made 



140 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

another Will afterwards, wherein heap- 
points some of his privy council for his 
executors; for he names the Prince and 
Archbishop of Canterbury to be their 
Supervisors, according to the custom of 
that period. The copy of this Will, if it 
exists now, has not been published. My 
account of it is taken from the Parliament 
Rolls, vol. 4 5 p. 5, n°. 13. 



I have a few grains of blame, but 
mixed with praise, to bestow upon Shake- 
spear before I conclude. I cannot forgive 
him for the quibbling lie, which he makes 
the young Prince tell the Sheriff, in order 
to stay the pursuit of justice for the rob- 
bery. And whenever I have seen it on 
the stage, I have observed the same feel- 
ing in the audience. This perhaps is his 
own, and if so may be imputed to the 
manners of his early life. Yet it is as 
inconsistent with the becoming grace and 
dignity and propriety which he generally 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 141 

gives to his high characters, as with the 
real character of the Prince. This and 
the Princess Katherine's french are fit 
only for the groundlings of his wooden O. 
He could not but believe, as the best 
of his contemporaries did, in Holinshed's 
account of the transactions which are 
made the subject of his plays. Malone 
has shewn that he always follows that 
author in the historical dramas. * We 
should therefore admire the dexterity 
with which he takes every occasion to 
set off the young Prince's character to 
the best advantage, and to cover his 
faults. In the first mention of him by 
his father,! " Can no man tell of my un- 
thrifty son?" (for Shakespear supposes 
him a man grown at this time) where he 
is made to complain of his loose compa- 
nions^ who beat the watch, and rob passen- 
gers, the King concludes thus — 

u As dissolute as desperate \ yet thro' both 



* See 12. Reed, p. 293 in Henry 5. 
t Rich. 2, act 5, sc. 6. 



142 CHARACTER OP HENRY THE FIFTH 

I see some sparks of hope, which elder days 
May happily bring forth "* 

In the introductory scene to the rob- 
bery, he makes the Prince reflect upon 
the disgrace he is going to incur in such 
company, 

° I know you all, and will awhile uphold 
The unyoked humour of your idleness. 
Yet herein will I imitate the Sun, — 



So when this loose behaviour I throw off, 
And pay the debt I never promised — " 

So in Vernon's report of his interview 
with the King and Prince, f he is made 
to say of the latter's sending Hotspur a 
challenge, 

" He made a blushing cital of himself, 

And chid his truant youth with such a grace.—" 

* Which words Dr. Johnson, on Shakespear's au- 
thority, seems to have received for good history $ and 
therefore calls a very proper introduction to the future 
character of Henry theffth. 

f 1st Hen. 4, act 5, sc. 4, 



WHEN PRINCE OF WALES. 143 



Again, to relieve him from an illnatured 
insinuation of bis brother Clarence's to 
the King, who is incensed by it, War- 
wick makes the speech beginning thus, 

t( My gracious lord, you look beyond him quite. 
The Prince but studies his companions, 
Like a strange tongue, &c. "* 

and assures the King that it will end to 
his honour. 

These passages shew that Shakespear 
seemed to struggle against believing the 
current stories of misconduct as much as 
he could, that he might not let the Prince 
down to their level. 

The Brotherhood of Shakespear's edi- 
tors must not be passed by without cen- 
sure, for putting forth such an abun- 
dance of illustrations of their author's 
plays, without ever noticing the injustice 
done to the character of one of thegreat- 

* 2d Hen. 4, act 4, sc. S, 



144 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH 

est among the English princcs,in the Plays 
before us. Especially when we consider 
the extraordinary labour of their multitu- 
dinous notes. This may be wondered at 
in Steevens, who was a great reader of 
English history and a diligent observer. 
Although he gives many notes to correct 
mistakes of dates and persons wrongly 
introduced, he seems never to have ob- 
served the capital error relating to Henry 
the fifth. 

He has one note only to this effect,* 
where upon the authority of Sir J. Haw- 
kins, the deviation from history respect- 
ing Chief Justice Gascoigne's surviving 
Henry the fourth is corrected ; but 
though Sir Thos. Elyofs whole chapter 
is there recited, it was left to Malone to 
notice the mistake as to the Prince's 
striking him, who notwithstanding thinks 
it necessary to quote Speed upon the 
fact. 

* Johns, and Stcev. edit. v. 5, p. 588* 



WHEN PRINCE OP WALES. 145 

Malone likewise has one note, to cor- 
rect Shakespear's mistake of the Prince's 
age in the Kings speech before quoted 
in p. 141, when, he observes truly, he 
could not be more than twelve years 
old. 



The following Summary of Dates of the 
principal events and transactions in this 
Essay may be found useful. 

A.D. 1387. Henry V. born, 9th August. 

1399. Knighted in the field by Richard II. 
in Ireland, in his 1 2th year. 

In the same year created Prinee of 

Wales. 

1402. Attended the army against Scotland. 

1403. Made King's Lieutenant of Wales. 
21st July, wounded in the battle of 

Shrewsbury. 

1408. Left Wales, where he had con- 

ducted the war and government 
for five years. 

1409, President of the Council, and en* 

L 



146 CHARACTER OF HENRY THE FIFTH, &C. 

gaged in the chief business of 
State and Parliament. 
1410-11, Warden of the Cinque Ports, Cap- 
tain of Calais, and repeatedly 
thanked by the Common's for his 
services. 
1413, Succeeds to the Crown. 



( 147 ) 



Note for page 137. 



There is a circumstance so particularly related 
in the chronicles upon this occasion, as to re- 
quire a little antiquarian illustration, which I 
shall offer here. Young Henry's dress is thus 
described by Holinshed. u He was apparelled 
in a gown of blue satin full of oikt holes ; at 
every hole the needle hanging by a silk thread 
by which it was sewed. About his arm he wore 
a hound's collar set full of SS. of gold, and the 
tirets likewise of the same metal." 

Holinshed offers no remark upon this dress, 
which by describing so minutely he must have 
thought extraordinary. Stow quotes Otterburn 
for the story, and thinks it necessary to name his 
author, as one who had been informed of it, by 
the Earl of Ormond, an eye-witness of the same. 
Whatever the cause may have been, we must 
perhaps remain ignorant of it, unless what follows 
should serve for an explanation. In the Gentle- 



148 NOTE, 

man's Magazine of March 1756, there is a well 
written letter from Oxford, attempting to do this 
from the customs of Queen's College, in which 
the Prince had been a student ; and to shew that 
he may have designed to please his father by ap- 
pearing in a dress that would remind him of that 
College, and of the time he passed there. 

I have mentioned the subject to some of my 
acquaintance who belonged to this College ; and 
have been honoured with a letter from the Pro- 
vost containing the following information. "On 
New Year's day the Bursar presents to every 
one who dines in the hall a silk-threaded needle, 
and says to him, Take this and be thrifty. But 
no such ceremony is prescribed in the statutes, 
and neither the date nor the occasion of intro- 
ducing this custom is known. The general opi- 
nion is that it originally bore an allusion to the 
founder's name, Eglesfeld from aiguille and Jil. 
And the story told by Holinshed has been con- 
sidered as an argument in support of the tradi- 
tion, that Henry the fifth had a part of his edu- 
cation in this house. 

There is no reason to impeach the testimony 
of Rous as to this fact ; in addition to which, 
there is the constant tradition, that Henry lived 
in the chamber over the great gate of the Col- 



NOTE. 149 

lege, which had been before occupied by the 
Black Prince, and which was taken down about 
sixty years ago. In this chamber was a portrait 
in glass., apparently very ancient, of Henry the 
fifth, together with that of Cardinal Beaufort. 

In another part of the College there is an in- 
scription on glass, relating that Henry the fifth 
had studied there/' 

From the summary of dates* of the principal 
events of his life, it may be seen that there was 
time for his residing at Oxford from 1399 to 
1402, not filled up in the account, from the 12th 
to the 14th year of his age. At this period Henry 
Beaufort Bishop of Lincolnf was Chancellor of 
Oxford, not having succeeded to Winchester till 
1404, upon the death of W. of Wickham. I 
cannot learn that there is any tradition at Oxford 
of a peculiar dress like that above described, 
either in Queen's College or any other ; but it 
seems reasonable to assign it to the ceremony 
practised there, and to the motive supposed by 
the writer in the Magazine. 

An inaccurate phrase in Stow's Chronicle 



* See p. 145. 

f See iu Twyne's Antiq. Acad. Oxen. Apol. the citation 
from Rons, 



150 NOTE. 

(copied, perhaps, from one much older) has led 
to a mistake in some accounts of Oxford ; in 
which the young Prince is said to have belonged 
to New College, because Stow writes that he 
studied at the new College. But many Colleges 
have been called new, with respect to the rest, 
for some time after their first erection, and this 
was the case of Queen's, 



G. SIDNEY, Printer, 
Northumberland-street, Strand. 



1.5 J 










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